Fear and Loathing in Mouschwitz

On February 22nd, 2018, the Wall Street Journal published an article, detailing over two decades of sexual harassment allegations against Disney Theatrical CEO Tom Schumacher and a corporate culture that punished those employees who would not be complicit with Schumacher's questionable behavior. In December of 2017, Harvey Weinstein's former assistant Zelda Perkins told the BBC she had informed Disney that Weinstein had attempted to rape a colleague in 1998. In November of 2017, former Disney staff employee Kevin Snow published a "gonzo journalism" manuscript, in which he fictionalized Disney's strangely sexual corporate culture and his own victimization by former executive Gregory Gunter. He immediately leaked this scoop to the press. In Mouschwitz, Snow uses fiction and adventure, rather than fact and memoir, to detail Disney's legal impunity and to paint a portrait of an industry gone berserk with power.

Mouschwitz tells the story of a lonely queer staff writer in Michael Eisner's Disney empire who can't seem to get the break his career needs. Instead, the executive officers he works under seem more focused on selling him into prostitution and pornography, buying his used underpants, showing up to work without clothes on, and keeping him on staff to exploit his medical marijuana license. A psychedelic Bush-era flashback, laced with cynical humor and pop culture pastiche, Mouschwitz takes the reader on a dizzying journey through every nook and cranny of the entertainment industry, through multiple characters' perspectives, as Snow blends pointed social commentary with the dark and terrifyingly surreal. Mouschwitz is The Devil Wears Prada meets Moulin Rouge, while both get sucker punched by Mulholland Drive, as Slavoj Zizek watches in hysterical fits of laughter. At the end of the ride, the reader is left to wonder if America's Mouschwitz is here to stay.

"Explosive" - Gordon Cox, Variety

This novel is the third in Snow's gonzo journalism series. With illustrations by John-Ross Boyce and designed by Dr. Alex Alchwikani. Each novel in the series can be read either independently as a standalone book or in sequential order.