The Victory of Defeat

Los Angeles, 1941. Henry Jokowski is an angry young man. He hates college, has no girlfriend, and dreams of writing the Great American Novel. His sole comfort comes from joining the German-American Bund and their torchlight parades celebrating Hitler's victories across Europe. Then the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. America is gripped with war fever. And Henry realizes that it's maybe not such a good idea to be seen walking around Los Angeles in his Nazi uniform. Too bad it's the only clothes he has after being kicked out of the house by his father. With the FBI in pursuit, Henry is thrown into a bizarre and erotic world of domestic espionage, secret military experiments, mafia hits, Native American spies, dancing girls, and enough material for ten Great American Novels -- if he survives to write it! Author Ben Pleasants dedicates this novel: "To Charles Bukowski, who told me to write it, but make it funnier."