His stories seem very pessimistic, I noted - some violently so. It sold widely for this kind of book - 8,000 to 9,000 copies."įAST DECIDED not to discuss politics, but somehow it kept coming "I wrote a small book, which I guess is the shortest book on meditation that's ever been published. In the conclusion to his book of Zen short stories, Fast explains that what makes the tales Zen is that each has a riddle: They seem simple, but are they? "But I don't think Zen should be clouded in some kind of mystery," he said. Now he is a Zen Buddhist - "sort of," because, with Zen, nothing's supposed to be too definite. "Next to 'The Legacy,' 'Time and the Riddle' sold very few copies indeed."Īt one time, Fast was once an avowed Communist who went to jailįor refusing to disclose the names of contributors to a hospital that treated U.S. "I feel so frustrated," said Fast, a balding man with a brushy mustache, sitting in the study of his Greenwich, Conn., home.
It's a thick paperback called "Time and the Riddle," a collection of 31 Zen stories. The interviewer to read, it's not "The Legacy," his newly released fourth novel in the series, which already has sold 125,000 copies. YET WHEN HIS publisher sends out one book that Fast would like
But like Fast's own words, the story tends to stay with you because Fast is a terrific storyteller. It's easy to dismiss the writing in these four novels as pulpy, the story as soap opera.
#I WAS ONCE AN AVOWED COMMUNIST SERIES#
Maybe it's the same with his books - notably his series about a group Howard Fast is one of those delightfullyĬonfusing people whose manner seems utterly simple, calm and straightforward, but whose words leave you wondering, days later, if you even scratched the surface. ON BOOKS Life in the Howard Fast Lane is Doom & Gloom By Tracie Rozhon, Special to the Daily News Howard Fast: Life in the Howard Fast LaneĪnthologies Articles Films Intros Juvenile Mystery Non-fiction Novels Pamphlets Plays Poetry StoriesĪbout HF Texts Reviews Chrono Checklist Bookstore Bulletin Board Site Search Author Index Title Indexīlue Heron Press Citizen Tom Paine Freedom Road Last Frontier My Glorious Brothers Spartacus The Children Peekskill Unvanquished Masuto EVC's Women