[Michael Juster]

The great Joe Kennedy has been an inspiration, friend & mentor for me and many of us here. At the age of 86 he has published his first comic novel, "A Hoarse Half-Human Cheer" from Curtis Brown.

I am behind on several deadlines, so I have not read it yet, but I am looking forward to it and hope some of you will give it a try!

[John Whitworth]

Has he published any other kind of novel or is it his first novel tout court and if so is that a record?

I see he published a children's novel in 1983, but that doesn't really count, does it?

I see the X doesn't stand for Xavier, as I had thought, but was assumed because he was tired of having the name of that proto-fascist senator who wanted Hitler to win the war.

[Michael Juster]

Joe has also done sci-fi novels (I believe under a pseudonym a long time ago).

Yes, my understanding is that he adopted the "X" partly as a result of chronic confusion with JFK's father.

While I am on the subject I should mention that the talk I gave about Joe's "serious" poems (not to slight the often-serious content of "light" verse") this past summer at WCU has been cleaned up as an essay for The Hopkins Review and will be out in May.

[Roger Slater]

I love the Davidson poem his title derives from. Does the novel tell the same story, more or less?

[Michael Juster]

I've only taken a quick look at it so far (and Joe has told me a bit), so I would only venture to say that it is apt but not all-encompassing.