Readers Guide
Since this is a new genre, some of the assumptions you bring to the book may not apply. Here are a few hints and tips to help your experience along:
- The footnotes can actually be read as a single essay. This is the work alluded to in COMA and that goes along with the Dissertation Cover page presented in the final TANGENCY.
- ONE CENT IN MANHATTAN is actually a how-to primer. Get used to the presentation of three voices telling the same story, sometimes talking over each other…
- The “Triangle Trilogy” is comprised of OBTUSE, EQUILATERAL and ACUTE. This is another practice set meant to further acclimate you to the multi-dimensions of the same story.
- Yes. WALDEN and BRIARPATCH are mirror images.
- Only one character in the whole book has a name. Think of him as the narrator in every story, able to jump in and out of situations, take on personas, and describe things that the person he inhabits may not have known. He is wonderfully imperfect. (Remember Quantum Leap?)
- Momentitiousness can be read in any order. You choose. Remember “Choose Your Own Adventures?” Think of this like that, except that you are pushed by chance from one story to another story. Depending upon the order you choose to read the book in, different connections, tangencies, and narratives appear. It is more like a “Chose Your Own Adventure.”
- Imagine a time-space in which all of these Moments occur concurrently and you are just passing through.
- Take it slow. Overdosing is easy. This is not a novel. Savor each Moment unto itself and allow yourself to discover the larger narratives in your own time.
- Characters recur and facts are mushy (remember our wonderfully imperfect narrator?). Is the kid from MERRY-GO-ROUND the candidate in BLAST?…or is he the zombie in JUANS? Who are these sweet people in BAIT and ROCKING CHAIR? Is the boy from BLOOM the sexamaniac from ARBITRAGE?
- Keep a hankie nearby at all times. You might need it to dry your tears from crying (FLAG, ACUTE) wipe your nose from snorting laughter (CHOKE, SALE) wipe your brow from the intensity (DORITOS, FIRE, COMA) or cleanup (um) “messes” from some of the more erotic pieces (OBTUSE, PRINCESS).