The Tyranny of Desire

The Tyranny of Desire

Meet Puchy Mushkin, the hero of this "fast-paced phantasmagoric satire of a debauched contemporary LA..." (1) who "vows to live a life devoid of want..." (2) while thrusting himself into "the wildest situations and transgressions in a carnivalesque Los Angeles." (2) This novel is "often uproarious,"(2) "delightfully wicked, outrageous..." (3) "brilliantly written and very funny." (1) Puchy Mushkin will be the first to tell you: he has talent, intelligence, and ambition to spare. And yet, despite his prodigious-some might even say "gargantuan"-mental and physical endowments, he is a spectacular failure in life and love. In the depths of his despair, Puchy has an epiphany: could the endless series of screw-ups that define his existence be the result of his overwhelming desire for success? To test his theory and, hopefully, change his fate, Puchy vows to banish all dreams, goals, aims, ambitions, and obsessions from his life except one: to assassinate desire itself and hang it by its feet like Mussolini. What follows is the hilariously dark, raunchy, and irreverent tale of one man's twisted war with himself-an anti-story about an anti-hero whose only motivation is to have no motivation at all. Will Puchy succeed in his quest to conquer desire? Or will desire get him first? Grab your copy of The Tyranny of Desire TODAY to find out. (1) Robert Grossmith, Author of the Empire of Lights (2) Booklife by Publishers Weekly (3) Readers' Favorite "Simply a blast to read." - Readers' Favorite "Readers who relish irreverent literary play will be rewarded with insight and challenges to convention." - Booklife by Publishers Weekly "Shallman seems eager to challenge readers' senses of decency whenever possible... a lively but profane comic tale." - Kirkus Reviews "Filled with droll humor, quick-witted dialogue, and colorful characters, the narrative keeps you in stitches and rarely allows your attention to waver..." - Readers' Favorite "A shocking, sensationalist, satire of contemporary US culture..." - Readers' Choice "...In the spirit of the norm-shattering, can-you-top-this? sexually frank comic novels of a generation ago, with a welcome queer edge..." - Booklife by Publishers Weekly "If you're looking for a good laugh, don't miss out on this one." - R eaders' Favorite Amazon #1 Bestselling Author MORTY SHALLMAN was born on the West Coast of Illinois and studied creative writing at the University of Chicago. His groundbreaking sexistential novel, The Tyranny of Desire (2023), was the #1 New Dark Comedy Release and the #1 Bestselling Absurdist novel on Amazon. It has been praised as a "Comedic Masterpiece" by Readers' Favorite, and as a "ribald and incisive provocation" by Booklife. His latest novel, War and Sex (2024), was Amazon's #1 New Release in Popular Culture and reached #3 in Political Humor. It was also shortlisted for the prestigious Faulkner-Wisdom Prize in Literature. In addition to writing novels and screenplays, Morty is an accomplished singer-songwriter and recording artist with dozens of worldwide releases. He was voted the #1 Indie Artist in LA by Reverbnation.com (2018) on the strength of his hit single, "Freak," and is the creator of Literary Pop, an artistic genre characterized by unique mashups of pop music and literary fiction. Morty's seminal works of Literary Pop include Love's Oblivion, A Novel in Twelve Pop Songs (2002), Last of the Zachary's, A Novel with Songs (2010), and Pop Fiction, An Indie-Noir Musical Thriller (2017).Morty is an AWAL recording artist and a voting member of The Recording Academy, The Author's Guild, and The Greater Los Angeles Writers Society. He currently lives in Valley Village, California, where he continues his work as a novelist, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, publisher, and producer.