Harvey Jacobs
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Harvey Jacobs is one of America's most remarkable storytellers, a modern surrealist and perhaps the greatest Jewish fantasist since Singer.
His first novel, Summer On a Mountain of Spices about a Catskill Mountain hotel in the last days of WWII was also optioned for film and Broadway by Hal Prince and stands as one of the best novels of the "Jewish Alps" ever written. A fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts allowed him time to complete his next novel The Juror. Other work includes the novels Beautiful Soup and American Goliath, called "arguably the year's best novel" by the Kirkus Review. His short stories continued to appear in a wide variety of US and overseas magazines as diverse as Esquire, Michael Moorcock’s New Worlds and Paris Review. He won the Playboy Fiction Award in a competition that included many of America's best writers. |
SIDE EFFECTS Side Effects is the incredibly painful (and slightly hilarious) story of the last day in the short (but turbulent) life of Simon Apple, a lad from Glenda, Minnesota, who discovers (the hard way) that in our time side effects have replaced fate. The subject, i.e. the pharmaceutical industry and its barrage of commercials for cure-or-kill miracle drugs is exactly on target, front and center in millions of minds…literally, a matter of life or death. It’s a fast and furious read. The basic setting for the novel is a death row cell in a maximum security Federal prison. In his final hours, Simon relives his roller coaster life, is host to relatives, friends (and enemies) who come to say their fond farewells. Simon’s main interest is in discovering the clever plot that landed him in utter jeopardy, convicted of murdering a cult leader not to mention the holy man’s many followers. Rights available: World except English N/A (Celadon Press) American Goliath Inspired by the true, incredible events surrounding the mysterious marvel known to an astonished world as the Cardiff Giant. In 1868, George Hull heard a sermon proclaiming America to be the land of Genesis and that when "There were Giants in the earth in those days", those Giants were in America. So Hull, scion of a wealthy New York family of cigar makers, set out to prove that sermon right. Thus was born the Cardiff Giant. The ten-foot-tall fossilized giant was "found" on Stubby Newell's farm in Cardiff, New York, in 1869, and Goliath soon created more of a stir as any of P.T.Barnum great exhibits. Which, of course, picked the interest of Mr.Barnum himself, who was never to be outdone… He unsuccessfully tries to buy Goliath. Frustrated but persistent, Barnum hires a sculptor to make a copy of Goliath. Then, assisted by his celebrated protege, Tom Thumb, Barnum exhibits his stone clone with the brash claim that it is the only authentic ancient man. The two colossi are not just lifeless shapes of stone. They can think! When Goliath asks "Is there more to me than I know?" it is clear that a stone mind is capable of profundity. Here and throughout the novel, Jacobs ignores the orthodox boundary betweeen reality and fantasy. The result is a delightful and engrossing madness that makes "American Goliath" a brilliant tour de comic force. Rights available: World ex. Russian translation rights (Azbooka Publishers) My Rose & My Glove The first collection of stories by Harvey Jacobs in thirty-five years! Drawn from sources such as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Omni, New Worlds, and various anthologies, this volume presents a retrospective of Mr. Jacobs's work since 1970. Rights available: English ex N/A, World translation. The Egg of the Glak and Other Stories This short stories collection remains a volume sought after by collectors. First published in the USA in 1969 by Harper & Row (USA) and in the UK in 1970 by Secker & Warburg. Rights available: World. Praise for Harvey Jacob’s books Side Effects "The culture of pharmaceutical overkill is the subject—and target—of this high-energy fifth novel from the little-known comic surrealist whose best books (American Goliath, 1998, etc.) rival the late 20th-century antic fiction of Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller and Stanley Elkin. "Its protagonist—and victim—is Simon Apple, whose uniquely embattled life (shaped by the unforeseen effects of prescribed medications) unrolls before him when he’s on death row awaiting execution for a “murder” suspiciously linked to the very pharmaceutical company responsible for Simon’s alarming bodily transformations. As Jacobs juxtaposes the story of Simon’s life with details of his incarceration, the worst excesses of corporate greed and malfeasance, the cult of fame and the danger zones of sex and commitment are skewered with a ferocious energy that recalls the genial albeit pitch-black madness of Catch-22 and the weirdly wonderful new science of H.G. Wells’s Tono-Bungay. As Simon is successively afflicted with “explosive growth,” the possession of (first) antlers then gills, penile contraction and expansion, electronically mischievous flatulence and other arcane dysfunctions, his usefulness as poster boy for corporate behemoth Regis Pharmaceuticals is pronounced dead. And CEO Regis Van Clay, an egomaniacal masochist of hilariously epic dimensions, schemes to erase the blot on his company’s escutcheon that perpetually ailing Simon has become. "At times this novel’s ebullient particulars threaten to overwhelm the reader, but beating beneath its manic surface (like Simon’s unstoppable heart) is a brilliant expressionistic portrayal of an all-too-human sufferer “doomed to live life at arm’s length, a stranger to everyone including himself.” Despite numerous antecedents and influences, Jacobs’s monstrous satire is a truly original work. "A great comic novel and a huge leap forward for one of America’s most underrated and accomplished writers." Kirkus Review American Goliath “First things first: this is a masterpiece… stunningly inventive and charming fiction – arguably this year’s best novel.” * Kirkus Review “It is a wonderfully engrossing read. It is an enlightening and life-enhancing read… I recommend it to everyone who had given up hope of ever again being entertained at such a high level of aspiration. This is the kind of book that restores your faith in the vitality and focus of American fiction.” Michael Moorcock “If Mark Twain and Isaac Bashevis Singer went on a bender and collaborated on a novel, it would be American Goliath! Harvey Jacob’s masterpiece is a bawdy, joyous romp of a novel and a quintessentially American fable. It’s full of life, laughter, gentle cynicism and homegrown magical realism. It’s a wonderful book.“ Jack Dann
Beautiful Soup “Beautiful Soup is not only a very funny book, but also an accomplished, rare novel. Recommended.” “It unfolds with a richness of invention, character and dialogue.” Locus “A fine comic novel… Jacobs’ screwball comic inferno America… It’s funny, it’s pointed… Jacobs manages to imbue it with a certain characterological depth, a warmth, a pathos even. Satire it is, but satire, as it were, with a human face.” Azimov SF
Short stories “Jacobs, a superb wordsmith, is at home in many areas… His characters are haunting. He has an original mind with a highly attractive way of looking at things.” Chicago Tribune “Hypnotizes, the reader is compelled to listen. Bizarre urban fairy tales delivered with kick and rhythm.” “It is impossible to stop reading any of them. Here is an author who sees life clearly and with humor everything there is to know.” Publishers Weekly “The ease with which Jacobs pulls transformations from real to surreal, from plausible to perverse, admirably shows his art in creating milieus at times comic, at times sorrowful, but never sentimental.” |
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