Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of This Book vii
Preface to This Edition ix
Acknowledgments xxi
Incomplete Guide to Symbols and Metaphors xxxviii
Part I. Through the small tall bathroom window, etc. 1
Scatology
Video games
Blood
"Blind leaders of the blind" [Bible]
Some violence
Embarrassment, naked men
Mapping
Part II. Please look. Can You see us, etc. 47
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. 71
Demotion
Teachers driven before us
Menu
Plane crash
Light
Knife
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 105
But no. No no!
The weight
Seven years one's senior, how fitting
John Doe
Decay v. preservation
Burgundy, bolts
Part V. Outside it's blue-black and getting darker, etc. 123
Stephen, murderer, surely
The Bridge
Jon and Pontius Pilate
John, Moodie, et al.
Lies
A stolen wallet
The 99th percentile
Mexican kids
Lineups, lights
A trail of blood, and then silence
Part VI. When we hear the news at First 167
[Some mild nudity]
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. 239
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 281
The Future
"Slacker? Not me," laughs Hillman
Meath: Oh yeah, we love that multicultural stuff
Fill out forms
"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 311
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 353
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 407
No hands
Down the hill, the walk
Not NAMBLA
Birthday, parquet
Skye
Hot, poisoned blood
Jail, bail, the oracle
More maneuvers
A fight
Finally, finally