QUOTES

“Hanshe performs in Acolytes an aristocratic and "untimely" à rebours in fundamental mythic and primordial rapport with the Other and the Shadow . . . challenging the readers (and critics) supinely simplifying and conformist habits so-called “average” or mass, dispensers of facile and submissive consensus of the laws of the socio-intellectual market; so the oracular emphasis of his novel is that of a real youth "manifesto", crossed by the slogans "sublime" and Dionysian, and profoundly tied to a religio classico-romantic artistic creation that is poured out in abundance of poetical citation.”—Maura Del Serra

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"The Acolytes flies in the face of mainstream publishing with its eye on something bigger and vaster than the conventional marketplace. In mode its allegorical approach is so different than the types of Jonathan Franzen 'family sagas' that publishers pick up on nowadays. It’s quirky, weird, and mannered and many of the scenes have the strange power of dreams. They proceed according to their own logic, stately as yachts, moving irrevocably, like Time. Like John Cowper Powys, Hanshe has the talent for making other species come to life."—Kevin Killian

"It is delightful to read a novel of such intelligence that is nonetheless literary, in other words that does not resort to extra-literary discourses such as history or philosophy to glean its intelligence. The grave inscription motif, as well as the stylistic combination of the extravagant and the elemental is very Thomas Hardyesque. The sex scenes, in different keys, are phantasmagoric and have sensuality in both light and dark avatars. There is an essential mysteriousness at the heart of the strange set of relationships in the book and the complex power relation between Amos and Ivan is unusual and compellingly dramatized. It is a fine work, really a substantive achievement. This is a pathbreaking novel.”—Nicholas Birns

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“Hanshe’s Aristophanic critique of Amos Latimer and his acolytes and two different modes of discipleship articulates something that can be seen in many other regions of life and society: Plato and Aristotle, Leo Strauss and Arendt, Malcom X and the Nation, and the cult of fame. The fascinating thing, and part of the reason why his account is archetypical in a profound and broadly historically applicable manner, is that the contrast between sharing in speech shamelessly and not sharing is what differentiates the two modes of aesthetics in classical antiquity: the misanthropic and the philanthropic. The Acolytes is a brave work that says something of extraordinary importance for our understanding of political culture and culture more generally. Hanshe faces the issue of sex ontologically in a way that other American writers do not. He joins Burroughs in critically addressing the depths of the question of sexuality and control and brings the parallel that Burroughs wrote about in colonialism and militarism and the CIA to the left wing, avant-garde. A moving and impressive book.”—Rachael Sotos, New School University

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