Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of This Book

Preface to This Edition

Contents

Acknowledgments

Incomplete Guide to Symbols and Metaphors

PART I. Through the small Tall Bathroom Window, Etc.

Scatology

video games

blood

``blind leaders of the blind'' [Bible]

some violence

turtles

embarrassment, naked men

mapping

PART II. Please Look. Can you see Us, Etc.

California

ocean plunging, frothing

Little League, black mothers

rotation and substitution

hills, views, roofs, toothpicks

numbing and sensation

Johnny Bench

motion

PART III. The Enemies List, Etc.

Demotion

teachers driven before us

menu

plane crash

light

knife

Barry Gifford

State of the Family Room Address

half-cantaloupes

so like a fragile girl

old model, new model

Bob Fosse Presents

PART IV. Oh I Could be Going Out, Sure

But no. No no!

the weight

seven years one's senior, how fitting

potential sagging

John Doe

decay v. preservation

burgundy, bolts

PART V. Outside It's Blue-Black and Getting Darker, Etc.

Stephen, murderer, surely

The Bridge

Jon and Pontius Pilate

John, Moodie, et al.

Merchant Marine

lies

a stolen wallet

the 99th percentile

Mexican kids

lineups, lights

a trail of blood, and then silence, and then Russia

PART VI. When We Hear the News at First

What's In, What's Out

mailing lists

daughter of Charles Bronson, stunning

[some mild nudity]

Randy Stickrod

all the hope of history to date

an interview

death and suicide

mistakes

keg beer

Mr. T

Steve the Black Guy

a death faked, perhaps (the gray car)

a possible escape, via rope, of sheets

a broken door

betrayal justified

PART VII. Fuck It. Stupid Show, Etc.

Some bitterness, some calculation

Or anything that looks un-us

more nudity, still mild

of color, who is of color?

Chakka the Pakuni

hairy all the crotches are, bursting from panties and briefs

The Marina

The flying-object maneuver

drama or blood or his mouth foaming or

a hundred cymbals

would you serve them grapes? Would that be wrong?

``So I'm not allowed''

Details of all this will be good

PART VIII. We Can't Do Anything About the Excrement

Elliot Strunk

The Future

``Slacker? Not me,'' laughs Hillman

Meath: Oh yeah, we love that multicultural stuff

``Isn't that great?''

We fill out forms

a kindly Betty White sort

``a nightmare WASP utopia''

a sexual sort of lushness

There has been Spin the Bottle

``I don't know''

``Thank you, Jesus''

``I'm dying, Shal''

PART IX. Robert Urich Says No. We Were So Close

Laura Branigan, Lori Singer, Ed Begley, Jr.

to be thought of as smart, legitimate, permanent. So you do your little thing

a bitchy little thing about her

a fall

the halls, shabbily shiny, are filled with people in small clumps

that Polly Klaas guy giving me the finger at the trial

Adam, by association, unimpressive

PART X. Of Course It's Cold

The cold when walking off the plane

plans for a kind of personal archaeological orgy or something, from funeral homes to John Hussa, whose mom heated milk once, after Grizzly

weddings

a lesbian agnostic named Minister Lovejoy

Chad and the copies

leaf pile

another threat

of course she knows

wouldn't everyone be able to tell?

the water rising, as if under it already

PART XI. Black Sands Beach Is

No hands

down the hill, the walk

not NAMBLA

birthday, parquet

Skye

hot, poisoned blood

jail, bail, the oracle

more maneuvers

a fight

finally