Disorder (A Fable)

In this brilliant and hilarious political novella, Leslie Kaplan imagines a series of unconnected crimes occurring throughout France. In each, a subordinate kills someone in a superior position over them—typically with an object used in their work, be it wiring in an auto shop, a huge sack of coffee, or a blackboard eraser. While these acts (no explanation is ever given by the criminals) clearly have a class-related character, the media and public figures are loathe to admit that class struggle still exists. Their denial of reality creates another thread in this joyful, dark satire: the fumbling of “experts” who mobilize theory after theory in order to analyze what is happening without admitting that the events could have any political content.