The One-Eyed Man

In this latest from Currie (Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles), "the one-eyed man" confronts his existence by taking everything literally and challenging all trivial assumptions. As the book opens, having waited at a corner all day owing to a broken "Don't Walk" sign, he intercedes in a nasty robbery, saving a young barista and getting shot in the process. We quickly learn that his wife recently died, which might explain some of his anomalous behavior, and the novel alternates between past and present as it chronicles her death and his current antics. The media attention he receives after foiling the robbery lands him in his own reality TV show in which he plays his confrontational self, but serious consequences ensue when, as part of his show, he ruffles the feathers of some violently entrenched interests. Currie pokes fun at natural foods and gun enthusiasts with equal aplomb, offering intimately poignant prose leavened with lively action to create a compelling narrative.