Herman Melville, Thomas Pynchon, Jack Kerouac, Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Chandler, Chester Himes, Pam Houston, and their metaphysical ukeleles.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
"Big Books and Little Guitars" explores Herman Melville's career, specifically his time living with the Typee in Nuku Hiva and his relationship with Nathanial Hawthorne. It's written in the style of a cetology chapter from Moby-Dick.
"Far Off on Another Planet" features pulp writer Leigh Brackett working on her final screenplay, Star Wars 2, and reflecting on her career, including the time she saved The Big Sleep from William Faulkner's meddling and her times on set with John Wayne and Howard Hawks.
"Mad Nights of Springtime" follows Jack Kerouac from his pre-On the Road days until his final decompensation on the Pacific shores near Big Sur.
"The Song at the Bottom of the Rabbit Hole" observes 1987 Philip K. Dick Award winner Patricia Geary in her years of obscurity, reflecting on the minor scandal that robbed her of a promising writing career.
"The Five-Cornered Square" tells the story of Chester Himes's stressful, nearly broken years as an ex-pat in Europe, from the FBI trailing him to his nights with Richard Wright and James Baldwin to his struggles in Majorca to his encounter with a noir editor who saved his career.
"Ukulele Fallout" patches together Richard Brautigan's life and work in a Brautigan-style bricolage.
"A Place Called Sickness" goes behind the closed doors of Flannery O'Connor's brief love affair with a Danish textbook salesman.
"The Bottom-Shelf Muse" is a noir tribute to Raymond Chandler based upon the time when Chandler held The Blue Dahlia screenplay hostage from Paramount Pictures.
"The Wide Empty Sky" follows Pam Houston through the last stop of her book tour, when she's finally able to release the ghost that's been riding piggyback on her since she started writing Contents May Have Shifted.
"The Incognito Players" pays homage to Thomas Pynchon through a paranoid tale of a young ukulelist convinced she has joined Pynchon's uke club.
"The Reticent Corpse" sends a hapless reporter to interview reclusive Japanese author Yoko Ogawa, only to find him thwarted by a series of bizarre, Ogawa-style obstacles.
"Ukes for the Little Guy" satirizes author Sean Carswell's creation myth in the classrooms and schoolyards of swampland Florida.
