Music For Losers
The third novel by Chris Minnick
Music for Losers explores the life of Leon Czolgosz, who shot President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY in 1901. Although Czolgosz described himself as an anarchist, he had only a basic understanding of the ideology, and was shunned by other anarchists who saw him as an annoyance.
In the novel, I delve into the life of Czolgosz and speculate about what led him to carry out the assassination. I explore the possibility that he started a detective agency with the heir to a vast spice and laundry services empire in the months prior to the assassination, and that the industrialist’s chimpanzee friend may have inspired him to contemplate the idea of propaganda of the deed. I also consider the role of love for a wandering poet and prophet in his decision to act.
Music for Losers is similar in style to the works of Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut. It will appeal to readers who enjoy humorous and unconventional fiction in a historical setting like Christopher Moore’s Noir Chronicles.
Music for losers deals with big ideas, but in a humorous (absurdist?) way. The themes of Music for Losers include anarchy vs. capitalism, nature vs. nurture, various ideas about self-sufficiency, the destructive power of capitalism, racism at the turn of the 20th Century, the ridiculousness of art criticism, manifest destiny, and whether “propaganda of the deed” is a valid strategy for creating change.