Another great installment.
And Nathan, did you see this?—

What?
No U.S. MARSHALS? (That oh-so-forgettable FUGITIVE knock-off.)

Aw, now I wish we were reading the book that had that passage in it. That is outstanding. I mean, wow.

Damn it, I had this idea. Too slow again. Mine's somewhat different though, and could probably still work. I'm glad to hear this isn't very good.

This thread has greatly enriched my understanding of the book. Thank you all.

I haven't yet read ULYSSES either, but I've read that its every chapter uses a different form. And I think I agree wholeheartedly with Miller's comment.

"A fantastical literary fugue"?

Multiple existences with variations—what an exciting bit of folklore we've stumbled upon here!

I will never click that or anything like it.

I own it. I'm an ONION completist. And yes, this seems to be directly taken from that. Except this is grosser.

You guys might want to let Ellen know
that there's no further discussion tomorrow.

I just don't know that the pieces always fit together very artfully. Maybe that's a postmodern choice on the part of the author, to leave his seams visible, but I never felt like I was reading something that formed an organic-feeling whole. Maybe it can't be done with such disparate forms and genres—but didn't…

As a whole though, I think this book could safely be categorized as literary fantasy, because of the author's highbrow intent and because of the recurring use of reincarnation. I realize those distinctions may be somewhat arbitrary—highbrow vs. lowbrow, fantasy vs. whatever—but as they're useful in discussion and…

That White Mountains section is brutal! Totally inhumane. I'm impressed and jealous though, swibble.

Cavendish's section really was great. I laughed out loud, and hard, when he got depantsed and caned by the groundskeeper. And at his description of the woman he had an affair with as being "significantly less widowed" than she had claimed.

I missed that. That must have been what Tasha meant then. My apologies to her. My mistake then.

If Luisa dies in the '70s (as is alluded to), and Cavendish is born around the same time (with his story set in the not-too-distant future, which I think it is, with its cloning centers and the way that symmetrically divides the book's stories between past and future, 3 and 3), then I don't think the stories are in…

I loved THE OUTER LIMITS
but this sounds absolutely terrible! The SAW writers? Whose idea was that?

I'm done reading novels unless it's with the AV Club. What a terrific catch.

Islands…another nice catch. The book is kind of an archipelago.