Pagan Operetta
by Carl Hancock Rux
Category: Fiction

Poetry. Upon publication of PAGAN OPERETTA, Rux's debut collection of poetry and prose, Rux was selected by the Village Voice Literary Supplement as one of Eight Writers on the Verge of Shaking Up the Literary Landscape. Like a play iteslf, this collection of poetry begins with Act 1 and the memory of a matriarchial history, to a second act cavorting through Europe and the ghettos of Ghana, West Africa -- to the third act, a sampling of Rux's politically charged text, and surrealist fiction. The result is a lavish literary spectacle. Ultimately, Rux's work belongs to his own genre, a postmodern Marquis de Sade, a writer arguing with mortality. As described by one critic, Rux is most impressive...a gifted poet who offers up vibrant imagery like a street corner preacher in the midst of a nervous breakdown. -- The New York Times, 1999. There is such drama and down to earth grooviness in PAGAN that it can only be described as Funky Decadence.