Andrew Howald

Journey to Misanthropia Andrew Howald

The Sultan of Misanthropia, an elegant dwarf bent on incinerating the entire planet and experiencing an "orgasm of terror." A WW II veteran, wielder of a flamethrower on Iwo Jima, who tells of his strange encounter with Robert Oppenheimer. A "word assassin" who executes with fragments of poetry and "compact shiny sentences." A sociopathic collector of serial killer confessions. These and even stranger voices inhabit Andrew Howald's new collection Journey to Misanthropia. What one critic has called Howald's "superb contempt" is amply on display here, but so is a turn toward something else, such that the collection might plausibly be titled: Journey to Misanthropia -- and Halfway Back.