I confess I have no idea what really happened in this wacky novel, but it was nonetheless entertaining, if only because it’s so totally indescribably unpredictable. From what I gathered, there’s a love story going on of some sort between a poetry teacher and an ex-gangster and they live with a cat named Henry IV whose dying wish is to have Thomas Mann read to him. And, in case you wanted to know, gangsters never die, except if you shoot them in the head. One of the zany highlights is the resurrected return of Virgil (yes, that Virgil of Aeneid fame) halfway through the book, as he wakes up one morning to find that he’s metamorphosized into a refrigerator, but he can still do the existential BS with the best of them. Go figure.
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, May 28, 2004
Readers: Adult
Published: 2004 (United States)
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