Do you think this was an important aspect of his life that many people might not appreciate-or even be aware of? “Lino 1” relates some of Brando’s activist efforts, including those with the Black Panther Party and American Indian Movement (AIM). The chapters excerpted here, “Hair” and “Lino1” are quite different in many ways, but “Hair” deftly relates something Lino mentions in the latter excerpt: “Though he was notoriously inconsistent, Brando’s heart always bled for the underdog, foundling, stray, like I said.” Brando, one would guess, had his fair share of stalkers, but did his bleeding heart sometimes even extend to those who may have revered him, but also sought to kill him? I think of Brando in a similar vein as one of my (reimagined) humans. Best not to believe what you’ve heard about Manson. With this “odd-seeming combination” in mind, I’ve written about Chet Baker, Hurricane Carter, Walter Benjamin, Leadbelly, Lady Day, Nina Simone, and–hold the phone–Charles Manson. Why did you choose Brando for your novel’s subject? Has his story been something you’ve wanted to address for a while?Ĭertain figures interest me, and they often seem to combine an unremitting cultural resistance with melancholy, compassion, and a coyote-trickster sort of humor.

Hal, your novel Brando Bleeds covers a lot of ground in various forms in depicting Marlon Brando’s life, providing readers with a certain sense of insight into the man himself that goes well beyond our simple understanding of celebrity.

Jaffe is editor-in-chief of Fiction International. His books have been translated in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, Cuba, Turkey, Romania and elsewhere. Harold Jaffe is the author of 23 volumes of fiction, novels, docufiction, and essays, most recently Anti-Twitter: 150 50-Word Stories, OD, Paris 60, Revolutionary Brain, Othello Blues, and Induced Coma: 50 & 100 Word Stories.

Revolutionary Brain by Harold Jaffe