First published 1998
Dick Gibson runs a radio program that attracts America's most peculiar characters. Arnold the Memory Expert calls in, boasting he has committed the entire West Coast shoreline to memory, cloud cover and fog banks excepted. Bernie Perk, a pharmacist with a burning obsession, becomes a regular. Nine year old Henry Harper, an orphaned millionaire, phones the show terrified that someone might adopt him. A woman obsessed with pierced earlobes shares her fixation. Evil hypnotists dial in alongside swindlers and con men of every variety. Gibson understands his audience perfectly. He knows what Americans crave and delivers it night after night. His show becomes a magnet for the nation's obsessions and delusions. Through his microphone, Gibson channels the manic energy of a country full of dreamers, schemers, and true believers. The airwaves crackle with their stories, confessions, and wild schemes. Gibson sits at the center of this chaos, orchestrating a nightly circus of American madness.
Genres: fiction, satire, american-fiction, 20th-century, american, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: ensemble-cast, quirky-characters
Period: 20th Century
335 pages · Paperback · Dalkey Archive Press