The Fan Man
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article deals with the novel. For the notorious paraglider of sporting events, see Fan Man.
| The Fan Man | |
| Author | William Kotzwinkle |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Avon Books |
| Publication date | 1974 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 208 p. (1994 paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0679752455 (1994 paperback edition) |
The Fan Man is a comic novel published in 1974 by the American writer William Kotzwinkle. It is told in the first-person by the narrator, Horse Badorties, a down-at-the-heel hippie living a life of drug-fuelled befuddlement in New York City c. 1970. The book is written in a colorful, vernacular "hippie-speak" and tells the story of the main character's hapless attempts to put together a benefit concert featuring his own hand-picked choir of 15-year-old girls. The concert ultimately is a success but true to form Horse is not himself in attendance having mixed up the dates and been diverted elsewhere.
Horse is a somewhat tragic, though historically humorous, character with echoes of other famous drug-addled characters in popular culture such as Reverend Jim Ignatowski of Taxi fame. In his inability to follow anything through to completion he displays symptoms of attention-deficit disorder though this could equally be drug-induced. His defining characteristic is his joy in renting or commandeering apartments which he fills with street-scavenged junk articles until full to bursting he moves on to his next "pad". The name "fan man" is a reference to another of his traits; the collecting of fans of all shapes and sizes.
