After Things Fell Apart

The time is a few decades from now, the place what used to be the United States, now disrupted by internal factionalism as well as a short-lived foreign invasion. Out of this chaotic background Ron Goulart has produced a swift-moving, witty and constantly delightful novel, a story of a future odyssey through: *The Nixon Institute, where aging former rock stars reminisce about the days when they still had hair; *the wide-open sin-town of San Rafael, run by the Amateur Mafia (no Italians allowed:; *Vienna West, a detailed replica of Sigmund Freud's 19th Century city where psychiatric patients live and abreact together; *the Monterey Mechanical Jazz Festival, featuring the music of pinball machines, jack hammers an Laundromat washers... All this plus a dozen or two of the oddest characters you're ever likely to meet.