The Heavyweight Champion of Nothing by Zak Mucha
It started when the boss announced: “You guys can fight in the alley, you can fight in the truck yard, but stop fighting in the customers’ fucking houses…” This changes everything for Johnny and the rest of the crew, who were accustomed to a policy which allowed drugs and violence during work hours. Moving furniture for a living allowed guys with spotty criminal and work histories to barely keep their heads above water, but the instatement of actual rules provokes an unfocused urge for revenge. Johnny and the guys use the boss’ trucks to burglarize houses, kicking off a poorly-planned crime spree. This is a working-class crime novel where the intended target is anyone who is “not us.” Category: Fiction
“Mucha doesn’t moralize; it’s just how life is for some people.”
—Jerome Ludwig, Chicago Reader
“Unlike most human beings, Zak Mucha is able to look clearly at the natural state of man and not burst into flames... But anyone who finds Mucha’s paintbrush too coarsely bristled is a coward and a liar.”
—Rennie Sparks, The Handsome Family
“Mucha’s writing is a cry from the soul, and in the soulless abyss that passes for contemporary literature, it’s a voice we’re fucking lucky to have.”
—Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight and Perv: A Love Story