The Shanghai Gesture

"Indiana has gloriously revived an obscure Hollywood film of the same name, infused it with eroticism and intrigue - and added Dr. Fu Manchu! The result is a lustrous, laugh-out-loud world of bawd and mayhem; an erudite, charmingly operatic opium den of decadence that seesaws between high brow and low camp and reads as though Cormac McCarthy had rewritten Austin Powers."-Arthur Nersesian"Ambitious... gonzo social satire." -Publishers Weekly"A fearless and valuable writer."-The Washington Post"[Gary Indiana] is the primary reporter of the underground, the dissociation of cultures, the new behaviors; there is a sense that if you want to understand what has happened in America, you would have to read Gary Indiana. And this newest book is a leap forward."-Michael Silverblatt "Like The Wizard of Oz meets Naked Lunch... this strange, filthy, uproarious little novel is a riveting read from start to finish."-BoldtypeIn the internationally acclaimed author's first novel since Do Everything in the Dark, Gary Indiana applies his prickly wit, nihilistic vision, and utterly original voice to this side-splitting spin on Fu Manchu.A mysterious bout of narcolepsy has overtaken the seaside hamlet of Land's End, a funk endemic to the region since the wreckage a century earlier of the ship the Ardent Somdomite. Inspector Weymouth Smith and unconvinced cohort Dr. Obregon Petrie attempt to thwart Fu Manchu's latest ploy for world domination while confronting South American Piyas, matching wits with a club-footed ex-Stasi, as well as battling the latest technological crazes and their own drug dependencies.The Shanghai Gesture is not a genre farce, but a compelling tale that merges the author's trademark eye for social satire with the beautifully poetic sensibilities of his previous novels.Among Those That Know, a cabal our story will elucidate in the fullness of time, rumors fluttered that Dr. Obregon Petrie defied the laws of gravity when it suited his caprice.Gary Indiana is the author of several previous novels: Horse Crazy, Gone Tomorrow, Rent Boy, Resentment, Depraved Indifference, and Do Everything in the Dark, as well as nonfiction works: Three Month Fever: The Andrew Cunanan Story, The 120 Days of Salo, Let It Bleed: Essays 1985-1995, Schwarzenegger Syndrome, and Utopia's Debris.