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George & Martha

Karen Finley author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Verso Books

Published:17th Apr '06

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George & Martha cover

An outrageous political satire by America's most daring performance artist and writer

George and Martha's affair goes way back, before George stole the election, before Martha built an empire on fascist domesticity. As usual, George numbs his pain with cocaine and the promise of kinky sex. Later, things get worse for Martha in this story that takes a radical stand on political power and psychosexual relations between men and women.George and Martha meet in a seedy motel room on the night before the Republican National Convention. Their affair goes way back, before George stole the election, before Martha built an empire on fascist domesticity. As usual, George numbs his pain over waging perpetual war with cocaine and the promise of kinky sex. Martha is forced to take a long view of her life as she suffers the public humiliation of corporate scandal, on the brink of going to prison. Written in the style of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, George & Martha is Karen Finley's most scandalous work to date, a hilarious satire that takes a radical stand on political power, psychosexual relations between men and women, and the current state of affairs. Lavishly illustrated with drawings by the author.

A hilariously devastating satire ... -- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
It began with George and Martha Washington. Must it end with George Bush and Martha Stewart? With a nod to Edward Albee, Karen Finley invents a wild tale of their brief hotel encounter on the eve of Martha's imprisonment, illustrated with faux-genteel drawings. Fasten your seatbelts-it's a bumpy, hilarious night. -- Margo Jefferson
This brilliant fantasy shines a devastating light on the pathologies now at the top of our cracked system. -- Mark Crispin Miller
Scarily hilarious ... Nobody's mind works like Karen Finley's. -- Amy Heckerling
No one limns the dark wet palpitating heart of corpo-sexual-psycho-America like Karen Finley. George & Martha is a nasty, hysterical, weirdly plausible bitch-slap of a book that might have been fashioned by Jonathan Swift after a night of caffeinated madness with Georges Bataille and Terry Southern. If our president had an ounce of manhood in his pants,, he would nominate Karen Finley for the Supreme Court. But after George & Martha, she's more likely to end up in Guantanamo. -- Jerry Stahl

ISBN: 9781844670642

Dimensions: 203mm x 152mm x 10mm

Weight: 160g

105 pages