Title: Living in the O
Author: William Hageman
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN/ASIN: 978-1477573174
Pages: 306
Genre: Humor & Satire
Synopsis
NEW! IMPROVED 2021 VERSION!
Yes, folks, many, many egregious errors have been removed from the 2012 mess. Now you can turn each captivating page without fear of striking the nearest wall with this book, having suddenly used it as a projectile of wrath owing to your profound abhorrence of the previous publication’s horrifying timeline inaccuracies, grievously mistaken usage of the odd word, heinous overuse of pesky descriptors of all sorts, and, uh … er ….
SO THEN. ON WITH THE SYNOPSIS!
‘I should’ve been born with a silver spoon poised over life’s bowl of cherries,’ is the signature lament of Olney Garkle, a sybarite manqué who tends to bankroll every adventure with a sum barely adequate for an unwashed Sunday morning stroll to the 7-Eleven.
Living in the O of Outsider since childhood, Olney meets and falls head-over-heels with Maggie Bebette, an outsider herself and, to Olney’s mind, a tempting bumpkin version of Louise Brooks’ Lulu. Her perceived vulnerability excites his ever-whinnying satyr within, and when she suggests they pool their resources for a trip to Paris, he quickly makes a list of her assets.
Through Olney’s French friends, they sublet an apartment in the 15th arrondissement, and thus begins a love story between two misfits whose character deficits are revealed against the backdrop of the cream of capitals, the city where l’amour is meant to be anything but ludicrous.
Why not join them, then, for a looney, licentious, taboo-breaking romp around the city where even war becomes a cherished memory. You may or may not regret it.
About the Author
William Hageman began working on “Living in the O” in the mid-1990s, but put it aside to work on the political newsletter “Scum at the Top” (under the pseudonym Harold Hark), which became a website in 1999. SCATT and its successor “Bilegrip” became a full time effort, concluding with the 2007 defeat of the Howard Government in Australia.
His publishing history:
* 1966 and 1967: Editor of a poetry magazine, “The Willie”. Published by Manic Press.
* 1968: “The Cockroach Hotel,” a book of poems on life in Chicago’s South Side, with introductions by Doug Blazek and Charles Bukowski. Published by Tom Kryss, Black Rabbit Press.
* 1969: “Stubble Poems,” a book of haikus based on life in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Published by Ben Hiatt, Grande Ronde Press.
From 1971 to 1982, he bummed around the globe, living in Asia and Europe. He settled in Victoria, British Columbia, where he met his wife, an Australian. They moved to Melbourne in 1989.
