A Spy in the RuinsABOUT THE BOOK A great American city is destroyed under mysterious circumstances, wasted by explosions and fire. A lone survivor wanders, lost, among its ruins. Out of a whirlwind of language appear the images of a boy, a youth, a middle-aged man exploring lives he might have led had he made different choices in early manhood, of an old man in a hospital, paralyzed and dying ? and of a young girl, a young woman, an old woman, alone, abandoned, longing, in an every-renewed and ever-frustrated search for love. Christopher Bernard's magnificent debut novel, anticipated by his literary admirers for more than eight years, offers a portrait of a society in turmoil, at war, divided and afraid, a world driven from its moorings, in quest of significance in a chaotic time ? a world like our own, inhabited by people finding what purposes they can, in the creation of meaning out of the chaos of experience. |
Common terms and phrases
Age quad believe beneath Big rip blank body breath burning called camera Clark Kent Close-up clouds cold collapse Compline crowd darkness dead desire despair despised door dream edge everything eyes face feel felt fingers friends future girl glass gray grin hair hand happiness hard head heart hecatombs Herbert Marcuse hippies hold hope horseshoe crab hosannas hour human imagine knew laugh laughter leaves letters never sent light listened live look masturbating memory Merry Pranksters mind mirror mouth moving never night palindrome Parataxis past pause penis pixie pulled reality Régis Debray remember seemed sense shadow shot shouts silence skin smell smile solitary sound staring strange streets suddenly theory of chaos thought tongue turned ululate voice waiting walk wall wanted watching wave whispering window words young