Bookworm
Jim Krusoe: Parsifal
Jim Krusoe talks about his new novel, where a sacred fool searches for his own private holy grail and perhaps saves the world from destruction.
By Michael Silverblatt • • 28m ListenCan a new knightly quest heal our global chaos? The hero of Jim Krusoe's quest novel,
Parsifal (Tin House Books), is a modest fountain-pen repairman named Parsifal who journeys into a forest outside someplace like Cleveland in search of a metal cup very much like the Holy Grail. Broken in spirit and incompetent, he experiences a fantastical war between the sky and the earth -- refrigerators and stoves drop from above, fires blacken the sky with smoke. Can this sacred fool rescue the globe from destruction? Well, says Krusoe, nothing else has worked so far.
