Passionate Spectator

Peter Leroy summoned for jury duty allows his mind to wander and slips into the mind of Matthew Barber who finds himself in the cardiac catheter lab in a Boston hospital where he allows his mind to wander and slips into the mind of Bertram W. Beath who checks into a hotel in Miami’s South Beach and into a life as an erotic opportunist and passionate spectator of beauty and human folly.“Middle age mortality and the meaning of life: all are examined with the lightest touch imaginable. Kirkus Reviews“Ebullient canny and entertaining. Donna Seaman Booklist“As devious as a Möbius strip turning in on itself doubling back through events that have already occurred and generally subverting our Newtonian world view.” David Kirby St. Petersburg Times“A personal journey that is mundane in detail yet mythic in scope . . . a gamboling reflection on the ways in which memory shapes supposedly objective history . . . colorful incisive prose and off-kilter wit.” Steve Smith Time Out New YorkNothing less than an assessment of each person’s place in the universe . . . as a spectator who gives shape to life simply by watching and remembering.” Jim Ridley Nashville SceneWhen Peter Leroy buys a copy of Creative Self-Promotion for Taxidermists from a street bum he unwittingly sets in motion an odyssey from truth to fiction to truth in a novel that is much less confusing and more revealing than these few words might indicate.” Dallas Morning NewsLENGTH: novel about 90000 words 245 pages in the trade paperback edition