Every Third Thought

In his ever inventive prose, Barth delivers yet another playful romp through the lives of characters both imprisoned and liberated by their constant urge to tell stories in language that shifts shape as constantly as their lives shift spaces. After a tornado destroys their gated community, George I. Newett, whom Barth introduced in his story collection The Development, and his wife, Amanda Todd, depart on a European vacation. The tornado occurs on the 77th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash, a seemingly insignificant date until Newett suffers his own crash/fall on his 77th birthday, which also happens to be the first day of fall. Thereafter, Newett experiences a vision on the first day of each season, revealing a significant event from his life that occurred in that same season. As Newett moves between his visions and his novel, he removes one veil after another—like Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights—exposing one story after another in his quest to discover the identity of George I. Newett.