30
Gould Bookbinder, 30's narrator, shares with us his thoroughly examined life from start to several finishes in thirty intertwined recollections, meditations, confessions, and passionate outbursts that when read together give us the kind of intimacy with another person that is possible only in great fiction. For there are many "incidents" - for example, the time when Gould, out for an afternoon swim, accidentally stumbles upon a young couple making love in the backseat of a car. So vividly is this image impressed in his mind that he finds himself recalling it at the most inopportune moments, much to the dismay of his current girlfriend, who is not amused. Gould also recalls an encounter with a pretty young waitress in a resort restaurant who triggers a memory of the crush he had on a girl at summer camp so many years ago and how he schemed to embarrass her for not returning his affections. And now - though he can hardly believe it - he finds himself ready to do so again. All of Gould's foibles - his lusts and obsessions, fears and anxieties - are conveyed with such candor and lack of pretension that we can't help but be seduced into recognizing a little bit (or perhaps a lot) of us in Gould. For Gould is indeed an Everyman for the end of the millennium, a good man trying to live an honest life without compromise and without losing his mind.
