Taking as his text Georges Bataille's insight that "only at the extremes is there freedom," critically acclaimed "guerrilla writer" Harold Jaffe documents Bataille's aperçu with 15 bone-chilling illustrations. Manson, Starkweather, Speck, Son of Sam, the Night Stalker, Aileen Wuornos, the Unabomber, Dahmer, Bundy, Gacy, Kemper, Kevorkian and Kissinger are not merely present and accounted for, they are rendered into a "reality TV" that you've never seen before. Widely praised as a virtuoso stylist, Jaffe employs a...
Taking as his text Georges Bataille's insight that "only at the extremes is there freedom," critically acclaimed "guerrilla writer" Harold Jaffe documents Bataille's aperçu with 15 bone-chilling illustrations. Manson, Starkweather, Speck, Son of Sam, the Night Stalker, Aileen Wuornos, the Unabomber, Dahmer, Bundy, Gacy, Kemper, Kevorkian and Kissinger are not merely present and accounted for, they are rendered into a "reality TV" that you've never seen before. Widely praised as a virtuoso stylist, Jaffe employs a number of narrative stratagems, such as letters, monologues, interviews and "unsituated dialogues" to torque the flattened, cartoon-like serial killers into a potently unnerving third dimension. As in False Positive, Straight Razor, Eros Anti-Eros and Sex for the Millennium, Jaffe's "docufictions" are at the same time lucid, intricate, gruesome, infinitely sad, and hilarious. At the end we are left with a profoundly incisive commentary on America's insatiable consumption of extremity, conveniently masked as moral condemnation.
If you think far too much horror fiction is stale and formulaic, this book will renew your faith.
Midwest Book Review
- Stephanie Simpson-Woods
Certain parts of the book had me wondering if he was actually there, hanging out with the killers, sharing a six-pack with them, and watching the way they tore their victims apart. 15 Serial Killers is a flashback into America’s horrid past, delightfully written so the reader can relate to the fifteen psychopaths Jaffe describes, and sometimes becomes.
Hacker's Source
- Book Reviews Editor
If you are into today’s monsters and are frustrated by the lack of originality pushed out there, then this is the book for you.
award-winning author of Architectures of Possibility
- Lance Olsen
I just received my copy of Harold Jaffe's 15 Serial Killers: Docufictions, and Raw Dog Screaming Press did an absolutely beautiful job in layout and design; if this is a sign of things to come for them, all of us interested in outre fiction are in for myriad treats. And, per usual, Jaffe's transgressive fictions are some of the most interesting and unnerving examples of angry edge-satire around.
Harold Jaffe is the author of author of ten fiction or creative nonfiction volumes and four novels, including Jesus Coyote, (2008) 15 Serial Killers (2003) andTerror-Dot-Gov (2005) from RDSP, Beyond the Techno-Cave: A Guerrilla Writer's Guide to Post-Millennial Culture, (2007) False Positive, (2002), Sex for the Millennium (1999), Othello Blues (1996), Straight Razor(1995), Eros Anti-Eros (1990), Madonna and Other Spectacles (1988) and Beasts (1986).
Jaffe's fiction has appeared in numerous journals and has been widely anthologized. His novels and stories have been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, French, and Czech. Jaffe is editor-in-chief of Fiction International and Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at San Diego State.
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