Lucid & Cute

This yarn takes place in the suburbs of a giant city, and its hero is Edison Lo. There he is, in his thirties, in the middle of things! In Chicago they're coming off their night shift, in Tokyo they're asleep - that's what's happening elsewhere in the world when Edison wakes up. Our hero has had the good education, and also the good job. Together with his wife, Candy, he lives at home with his parents. In other words, the juggernaut of meaning is very much not parked heavily on Edison's lawn. But then the lurid overtakes him and the form it chooses is Park.

At school and university, Park was Edison's best friend, until Park moved out east. For a decade, they never saw each other. And now, in the manner of a myth or cartoon series, Park has returned, narcotic and neurotic - just when Edison, like everyone else, has become unemployed. This reunion begins a spritely chain of events which to Ed feels like one long slide. This quick and chancy tale is full of high jinks and low tricks, complete with one orgy, one brothel and the disposal of a body, even if its heroes still try to keep up natty crosstalk and one-liners. But meanwhile something much larger might be going on. For if you start to notice minute doubles and repeats, or wonder if what you took as a literary kink might in fact be a kink of reality, well perhaps, like maybe, that shouldn't be so much of a surprise.

This yarn takes place in the suburbs of a giant city, and its hero is Edison Lo. There he is, in his thirties, in the middle of things! In Chicago they're coming off their night shift, in Tokyo they're asleep - that's what's happening elsewhere in the world when Edison wakes up. Our hero has had the good education, and also the good job. Together with his wife, Candy, he lives at home with his parents. In other words, the juggernaut of meaning is very much not parked heavily on Edison's lawn. But then the lurid overtakes him and the form it chooses is Park.

At school and university, Park was Edison's best friend, until Park moved out east. For a decade, they never saw each other. And now, in the manner of a myth or cartoon series, Park has returned, narcotic and neurotic - just when Edison, like everyone else, has become unemployed. This reunion begins a spritely chain of events which to Ed feels like one long slide. This quick and chancy tale is full of high jinks and low tricks, complete with one orgy, one brothel and the disposal of a body, even if its heroes still try to keep up natty crosstalk and one-liners. But meanwhile something much larger might be going on. For if you start to notice minute doubles and repeats, or wonder if what you took as a literary kink might in fact be a kink of reality, well perhaps, like maybe, that shouldn't be so much of a surprise.