A Pizza Hut, A Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut by Hannah Levene
Hannah Leven's sophomore novel is a wild and witty exploration of queer suburban utopia and the possibility of transforming mundanity into beauty
Suburbia is reimagined as a space for queer invention, perhaps even utopia, in Hannah Levene’s marvellous second novel. Friends Herb and Lara have found contentment at the Watford Caffè Nero, where Herb scribbles the great gay plays of the future during his breaks and Lucy courts Cynthia, a PhD candidate who seeks to reclaim the overwhelmingly masculine field of robotics in her high femme fashion. In a parallel plot that occasionally passes through the Caffè Nero, Laz finds her feet and herself in the safety of her hometown, working on a Yiddish translation of Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and rediscovering how life can be alongside friends old and new.
A near-future fantasy of community, A Pizza Hut, A Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and A Pizza Hut packs big ideas and big humour into its 170 pages. While at times a bit dense with theory and somewhat stilted until all characters are introduced, the novel evolves from simple vignettes (think a Richard Linklater film, but queer) to a radical, empowering alternate vision of suburban life (for this, there is no parallel). Levene’s background as a poet is evident in her precise storytelling language and unforced ability to paint the mundane as beautiful. As the story moves from a recognisable quasi-present to a surprising future, every development and reveal reaffirms the truth that, whatever we create, human solidarity is our way forward.
