Author Description

Maxi Kim's first novel was chosen by Book Works' new Semina series because of its refusal to recognize the differences between fiction and non-fiction, high-brow and low-brow, and art and life. One Break, A Thousand Blows! appears to be a novel about Japan, but the protagonist is a metaphor, aiming to negate Japan by writing falsely about it, and using it as a screen for the author's innermost hopes and desires. The author cannibalizes every book he references, as he subjects his characters to the occult use of books for divination. Kim, the grandson of illiterate Korean peasant farmers, is a recent graduate of the CalArts MFA Writing Program.