About The Book

Kathy Acker’s Don Quixote is an indomitable woman on a formidable quest: to become a knight and defeat the evil enchanters of modern America by pursuing “the most insane idea that any woman can think of. Which is to love.”

In this visionary world, Don Quixote journeys through American history to the final days of the Nixon administration, passing on the way through a New York reminiscent of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg and a brutally defamiliarized contemporary London. Here transvestites who might play at being Nazis and beautiful she-males enact the rituals of courtly love. Presiding over this late-twentieth-century Leviathan is Thomas Hobbes–the Angel of Death.

Praise

“Scarified sensibility, subversive intellect, and predatory wit make her a writer like no other I know.” –Tom LeClair, The New York Times Book Review

“Kathy Acker’s trancelike writing style peels away the layers of reality… Acker is an expert at evoking this shadowy realm of belief and emotion, where the rules of cause and effect do not necessarily apply.” –David Ballard, San Francisco Chronicle

“Acker at her most inventive and funniest.” –City Limits

“The Best of punk writers, she has an unmistakable voice that’s brash, feisty, sexy and smart.” –Esquire

“Acker deconstructs gender in this book as she never has before.” –C. Carr, The Voice Literary Supplement