750 S. Spaulding Ave., Suite 112
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Essays, Manifestos, Statements, Speeches, Maxims, Epistles, Diaristic Jottings, Narratives, Natural histories, Poems, Plays, Performances, Ramblings, Revelations, and all such ephemera as may appear necessary to bring society into a slight tremolo of confusion and fright at least.

Book Review

Antonello's Lion

AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW (2011)

Reviewed by Steven Wingate

In Antonello's Lion, the "perpetual wonder at what he sees and feels and can imagine" mentioned by Bamberger is enriched by the dual minds through which Katz-as-author lets us see the world. But both Solomon's and Nathan's minds, thanks to their picaresques, offer far more than two perspectives; through their travels, Katz paints us a precise and layered portrait of the world. In this respect, the mapmaker Ellis Prefontaine provides another glimpse into the core of the novel. Enshrined in the massive motel-like Colorado mountain compound that Nathan's financial advice has allowed a friend to afford is

"...the great Prefontaine cyberglobe, endless modes available with the touch of a remote stylus, so it could feature cities and roads, both day and nightscape...a projection of the distribution of world religions;...the migrations of tribes, so you could watch the armies of Saracens, Visigoths, Mongols sweep through."

In this sense, there is no better description of the experience of reading Antonello's Lion than the metaphor Katz himself offers here. Thick with the fervent confusion of human identity and the conundrumy brew of our created world, the novel offers many rewards—especially for readers willing to wade on the shore a moment, letting the waves tickle their feet, before its undertow pulls them in.