The Iraq War? The housing market collapse? College football’s concussion crisis? How can anyone be expected to understand such complexities, especially a “horticulturally dyslexic” farmboy with an eighth-grade education and a penchant for perpetually misunderstanding, misreading, and misinterpreting the world? Born on a farm in Ohio, Humboldt is content to spend his life “outside amongst the oxygen and unhurried hydrocarbons.” But when his father’s farm is threatened with foreclosure, Humboldt is forced to save it by enrolling in college, leading him on an epic absurdist adventure through Washington politics, New York performance art, Boston blue-bloods, post-Katrina New Orleans, multiple murders, and holy resurrections. Mixing the speed and structure of Voltaire’s Candide with a heavy dose of Joycean wordplay, and a love of literary acrobatics worthy of David Foster Wallace, Scott Navicky’s debut novel assails some of modern America’s most cherished beliefs and institutions with the battle cry: “Ticklez l’infame!”
“Navicky’s writing style and the way he tinkers with the English language is playful and terribly clever. Combined with Humboldt’s wild, crazy adventure, this makes for a fun, off-the-wall read that challenges the intellect, amuses, yet never panders to the reader’s comfort zone….I was reminded of Candide, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the naivete of Don Quixote, and maybe even a bit of Monty Python.” —A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall
“Coming in at over four hundred pages and moving along at breakneck pace, every chapter reads like an episode in a great screwball comedy from the days of yore. One-half Forrest Gump and one-half Zeppo Marx, the titular hero is unlike any you’ve read before or are likely to read again, and that’s fantastic….[T]ruly a treat to read and a unique experience you won’t ever forget….[A] spectacular debut novel.” —Chicago Literati
“Have you ever read a book that left you completely bewildered, but kind of happy about it?….If A Confederacy of Dunces and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had a moderately dimwitted but incredibly lucky love child, that might come close to Humboldt: Or, The Power of Positive Thinking.” —Words for Worms
“[P]robably one of the most unique stories I’ve ever read…Forrest Gump meets The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And I adored how the author lashed out at postmodern bestselling authors…. [W]e should just have had a lot more pages. Like 1,000 pages.” —The Bookworm’s Closet
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Scott Navicky 