Peter Leroy Site Index

The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

Complete Site Index

Every page on the site is listed here, arranged by topic.
(For a broad overview, see the list of major components in the Personal History; to search the site for specific terms, click here.)

Troilus and Cressida

Click me for the next stop on the two-minute tour.

Happy Asa Clam, Spokesmollusk for Babbington, Clam Capital of the World

WHAT’S NEW?

Advertisements
     Babbington Clam Council
     Babbington Studebaker
     Manning & Rafter, Eric Kraft’s Crackerjack Publicists
     Babbington Books (and More!)
     Classified Ads
     Kap’n Klam
     Leroy Lager
     Rod Strek, M. A.
     Small’s Hotel
     Squirrel Lamp
     The Shoppes at Olde Bolotomy

YOU CAN READ
THE FIRST HALF OF
THE BOOK
(21 CHAPTERS)
HERE,
ONLINE,
OR,
FOR MAXIMUM PORTABILITY
AND CONVENIENCE
WHEN READING
ON THE BEACH
OR
IN THE TUB,
YOU CAN BUY THE
PICADOR USA
PAPERBACK EDITION AT
AMAZON.COM
OR BARNES&NOBLE.COM OR
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD
THE COMPLETE TEXT
AS AN
eBOOK
AND READ IT ON A PDA.

At Home with the Glynns

About the Book				Summary and Reviews
Preliminaries				Dedication, Epigraphs, and Theme
Preface				The Alleyway Not Taken
Chapter 1				Troubled Titan Peas (Quality . . . in a Jiff!)
Chapter 2				Rolling Peas
Chapter 3				Practice!
Chapter 4				Goop
Chapter 5				The Acquisition of a Potentially Useful Skill
Chapter 6				Margot and Martha Ask a Favor
Chapter 7				Legends of the Glynns
Chapter 8				I Discover What I Want to Be When I Grow Up
Chapter 9				The Stories Told About the Night the Nevsky Mansion Burned
Chapter 10				The Night the Nevsky Mansion Burned
Chapter 11				Salvage
Chapter 12				A Nevsky “Fictofacto”
Chapter 13				Asides on the Compulsion to Tell a Story and Shells as a Concept
Chapter 14				Meeting Mr. Glynn
Chapter 15				Rosetta Glynn and the Aroma of Hope
Chapter 16				The Escape of the Bat
Chapter 17				I Become Aware of a Certain Yearning
Chapter 18				What Is Life?
Chapter 19				The Shock of the New, Cushioned by the Familiar, Wrapped in Hope
Chapter 20				A Chubby Toy Put on This Earth for Someone’s Amusement
Chapter 21				Trust
Chapter 22				An Aside on the Babbington Dialect
Chapter 23				“Oh, Peter—Grow Up”
Chapter 24				L’Amour, La Guerre, La Poussière
Chapter 25				Margot and Martha at Play
Chapter 26				In the Dark with You and You
Chapter 27				The Lizard Kiss
Chapter 28				The Route of the Cat Burglar
Chapter 29				Into the Enchanted Glynnscape
Chapter 30				Rustlers in the Dust
Chapter 31				A Passage Not Deleted
Chapter 32				Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis paniculata)
Chapter 33				The Crutch of Realism
Chapter 34				An Aside on the Subject of the Practical Value of Literature
Chapter 35				The Watermelon of Watermelons
Chapter 36				Every Student Needs Some Evidence of Progress
Chapter 37				I Become a Sketch Doctor
Chapter 38				The Apparition of the Dark-Haired Girl
Chapter 39				The Dark-Haired Girl Draws Closer
Chapter 40				Incomplete Need Not Be Incorrect, Especially When It Comes to Products of the Imagination
Chapter 41				My Mind’s Eye’s Apple
Chapter 42				The Laggard Stepchildren of the Facts
Chapter 43				Don’t Look Back

Audio Books
Inflating a Dog

Complete Peter Leroy (so far), The
     Description
     Demonstrations
     Something Like Clam Chowder: An Introduction
          (Includes “On HyperFiction”)

eBooks
     Inflating a Dog
     Herb ’n’ Lorna
     At Home with the Glynns

Events
Eric Kraft’s Readings, Lectures, & Other Appearances

YOU CAN READ
THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS
OF THE BOOK
HERE,
ONLINE, ONSCREEN,
OR
YOU CAN ORDER THE
PICADOR USA EDITION
AT
AMAZON.COM
OR
BARNES&NOBLE.COM.

Flying, Part One: Taking Off

About the Book			Description and Reviews
Preliminaries			Dedication and Epigraph
Preface			Lets and Hindrances, Views and Prospects
Chapter 1			Babbington Needs Me
Chapter 2			In the Historic Downtown Plaza
Chapter 3			The Birdboy of Babbington
Chapter 4			Straight
Chapter 5			Oh, the Squalor
Chapter 6			Dreams of Flying
Chapter 7			On Intention and Travel
Chapter 8			One in a Line of Impractical Craftsmen
Chapter 9			The Example of Dædalus and Icarus
Chapter 10			A Source of Motivation
Chapter 11			In Search of Some Bits of Memory
Chapter 12			I Seek a Little Help from My Friends
Chapter 13			The QT-909, from QT Flying Machines
Chapter 14			No Laughing Matter
Chapter 15			On Rejection’s Gray Gloom
Chapter 16			Mr. MacPherson Raises a Question
Chapter 17			Antinostalgia
Chapter 18			I Am Challenged
Chapter 19			A Baedeker for a Wild Goose
Chapter 20			A Father-and-Son Conspiracy
Chapter 21			Employing the Power of Experimental Thinking, I Prepare to Weld
Chapter 22			To Hell with Welding
Chapter 23			Pinch-a-Penny, the People’s Plane
Chapter 24			Surplus Motorcycles? Why Not?
Chapter 25			A Sop
Chapter 26			An Urge
Chapter 27			Majestic Salvage and Wrecking
Chapter 28			I, Sven
Chapter 29			In Which My Conscience Makes an Appearance
Chapter 30			A Worthy Cause
Chapter 31			El Patrón’s Revenge
Chapter 32			The Best in Town!
Chapter 33			I Play the Losing Game of Translation
Chapter 34			Elements of Aeronautics
Chapter 35			Albertine Takes a Tumble
Chapter 36			From the Symphysis Pubis to the Crest of Ilium
Chapter 37			Please, Sir, I Yearn to Learn
Chapter 38			If Only . . .
Chapter 39			Recruiting the Crew
Chapter 40			Al and I, Unstoppable
Chapter 41			I, Panmuphle
Chapter 42			The Boss Takes His Place
Chapter 43			Flyguys
Chapter 44			Albertine on Coincidence and Accident
Chapter 45			The Spirit of Camaraderie
Chapter 46			Through the Agency of Dust
Chapter 47			Paneling, A Thought Experiment
Chapter 48			My Name Stitched in Red
Chapter 49			Traveling Light
Chapter 50			Albertine’s Childlike State of Wonder and Receptivity
Chapter 51			A Banner Day
Chapter 52			Pleasure and Pain, in Sympathy
Chapter 53			Albertine Takes Off
Chapter 54			I Take Off

YOU CAN READ
THE FIRST HALF
OF THE BOOK
HERE,
ONLINE, ONSCREEN,
OR
YOU CAN ORDER THE
PICADOR USA EDITION
AT
AMAZON.COM
OR
BARNES&NOBLE.COM.
OR
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD
THE COMPLETE TEXT
AS AN eBOOK
AND
READ IT IN ON A PDA.

Herb ’n’ Lorna (A Love Story)

Contents
About the Book				Description and Reviews
Preliminaries				Dedication annd Epigraphs
Preface				The Spirit and the Facts
Chapter 1				Lorna Is Born into the Huber Family, of Chacallit, New York
Chapter 2				Lorna’s Uncle Luther Becomes the Father of the Coarse-Goods Trade
Chapter 3				Herb Is Born to the Pipers of Boston
Chapter 4				Herb Is Recruited for the Coarse-Goods Trade
Chapter 5				Herb and Lorna Meet but Are Separated by War
Chapter 6				Lorna Becomes a Legend and Herb Is Decorated
Chapter 7				Herb and Lorna Ignite the Flame of Passion
Chapter 8				Herb and Lorna Move to Babbington, New York
Chapter 9				Herb Becomes a Studebaker Salesman
Chapter 10				Herb and Lorna’s Daughter Is Born
Chapter 11				Curiosity Leads Herb and Lorna to a Misunderstanding
Chapter 12				Coarse Goods Help Herb and Lorna Survive the Great Depression
Chapter 13				Coarse Goods Buy Herb and Lorna a Home of Their Own
Chapter 14				Lorna’s Soap Carvings Entertain a Hundred Calculating Women
Chapter 15				Herb and Lorna’s Grandson and Biographer Is Born
Chapter 16				Herb and Lorna Fan Ardor’s Still-Flickering Flame
Chapter 17				Herb and Lorna Come to the Brink of Despair
Chapter 18				Herb and Lorna Are Saved by the Art of Love
Chapter 19				Herb and Lorna Retire to Florida
Chapter 20				Herb and Lorna’s Secret Is Revealed and They Are Enshrined

Herb ’n’ Lorna (A Love Story), Annotated by Mark Dorset

Contents

Viewing these pages requires a browser capable of displaying frames. I apologize for that; I tried several other methods of presenting the annotations and could not find another that kept the text and the annotations onscreen at the same time without one obscuring the other. If you find frames too annoying to endure, there is an alternative: you can open the annotations alone, without the text, by clicking here. The annotations should open in a window of their own. However, before you do that, let me say, for the record, that reading the annotations without the text is not the method I recommend, nor have I ever intended that the annotations should stand alone or in any way be considered a replacement for the text. I think that you should read the two side by side. I really do.
So, spread your browser’s window as wide as it will go, and read them as I (and my collaborators) wrote them. Click here to begin.

Mark Dorset

YOU CAN READ
THE FIRST HALF
OF THE BOOK
HERE,
ONLINE, ONSCREEN,
OR
YOU CAN ORDER THE
PICADOR USA EDITION
AT
AMAZON.COM
OR
BARNES&NOBLE.COM
OR
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD
THE COMPLETE TEXT
AS AN
eBOOK
AND
READ IT IN BED
OR
YOU CAN ORDER THE
AUDIO BOOK
AND LISTEN
TO KRAFT READING
THE COMPLETE TEXT
TO YOU.

Inflating a Dog

Contents
About the Book				Description and Reviews
Preliminaries				Dedication and Epigraphs
Preface				The Story of Ella’s Lunch Launch
Chapter 1				On Being a Bastard
Chapter 2				Dudley Beaker, a Hypothetical Father
Chapter 3				Martinis with the Merry Widow
Chapter 4				A Lot to Learn
Chapter 5				The Cynical Detective
Chapter 6				One Handy Package
Chapter 7				A Bubble Bursts
Chapter 8				You’ve Got to Ask for What You Want
Chapter 9				An Aside (Afflatus, Part 1)
Chapter 10				Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1
Chapter 11				An Aside on the Sidecar
Chapter 12				Not That Kind of Boy (or Girl)
Chapter 13				The Nut and the Slut, Together at Last
Chapter 14				An Aside on Blow
Chapter 15				Afflatus, Part 2
Chapter 16				To-Do, Undone
Chapter 17				Persuading Captain Mac
Chapter 18				Oo, Oo, Oo, What a Little Moonlight Can Do
Chapter 19				Morphology and Aesthetics of Clam Boats
Chapter 20				Inflated by Beauty
Chapter 21				Porky Darling
Chapter 22				My Father Bets on My Mother’s Horse
Chapter 23				The Fate of Fledglings (Afflatus Part 3)
Chapter 24				Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2
Chapter 25				Take Me Away; Take Me with You
Chapter 26				Traveling by Balloon
Chapter 27				A Quiet Family Dinner, On the Eve
Chapter 28				“No Harm Done, Most Likely”
Chapter 29				Trouble Down Below
Chapter 30				An Act of Sabotage, in Reverse
Chapter 31				Night Walker, Night Bailer
Chapter 32				In Which I Swallow My Pride
Chapter 33				Pride, Vanity, and Folly
Chapter 34				Arcinella, All Fixed Up
Chapter 35				My Confidante
Chapter 36				The Night Bailer Gets Some Help
Chapter 37				The Mysteries of the Jet Pump Revealed
Chapter 38				A Brief Aside on Hope
Chapter 39				The Art of Starter-Whacking
Chapter 40				The Shakedown Cruise
Chapter 41				Testing the Hypothesis, Part 3, in Which I Discover Certain Magic Words of Great Value to a Seducer of Young Girls
Chapter 42				Splash! Flash! Ella’s Opening Night
Chapter 43				The Morning After
Chapter 44				Six Days
Chapter 45				My Mother Aphorizes
Chapter 46				A Dead Dog, Beached (Afflatus, Part 4)
Chapter 47				The Common Touch
Chapter 48				Launching Ella’s Lunch Launch
Chapter 49				When You Dance (Doo Wop a Wadda Wadda)
Chapter 50				The Son of Second Best (Testing the Hypothesis, Part 4)
Chapter 51				Chance Brings an Opportunity
Chapter 52				Moderne Stylizing
Chapter 53				Selling Arcinella
Chapter 54				Good-bye, Old Boat
Chapter 55				And Then . . .
Chapter 56				The End

The screenplay
is now
available
in its entirety
right here
on this site.

Inflating a Dog Screenplay

Title Page
Chapter 1				Why Not Give It a Try? (in which Ella launches an idea)
Chapter 2				Spring Cleaning (in which Ella makes a mess and Bert squirms)
Chapter 3				Eliza’s Proposal (in which Eliza Foote offers Peter a job)
Chapter 4				No Easy Thing (in which Dudley Beaker gets down to brass tacks)
Chapter 5				Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl (in which we meet Patti Fiorenza)
Chapter 6				Just Asked (in which Peter wishes that he had a car)
Chapter 7				Everybody Needs a Friend (in which Patti says, “anything you want, just ask”)
Chapter 8				Attainable (in which Patti says, “I’d like to meet your mother”)
Chapter 9				The Nut and the Slut (in which a friendship is born)
Chapter 10				Ella’s Elegant Excursions (in which Ella floats an idea)
Chapter 11				My Arcinella (in which Captain Mac seems reluctant to sell)
Chapter 12				What a Little Moonlight Can Do (in which enchantment occurs)
Chapter 13				Porky Darling (in which we visit Kap’n Klam)
Chapter 14				A Real Blowtorch (in which Bert, thinking that Ella’s horse is Porky’s, bets on it)
Chapter 15				Further Experimentation (in which Patti changes her clothes)
Chapter 16				No Harm Done, Most Likely (in which Peter takes the wheel)
Chapter 17				The Arrogance of the Ignorant (in which Peter needs a bilge pump)
Chapter 18				To Bail Is to Inflate (in which Patti learns the awful truth)
Chapter 19				The Mysteries of the Jet Pump Revealed (in which Peter gets a lesson in fluid dynamics)
Chapter 20				Whack It (in which Mr. Lodkochnikov lends a hand)
Chapter 21				The Madman of Seville (in which “Dudley” plants the seed of hope in “Ella”)
Chapter 22				Flash! (in which the mayor’s wife makes a splash)
Chapter 23				The Power of the Press (in which we build a business on ifs)
Chapter 24				Hope Dies (in which the business sinks)
Chapter 25				When You Dance (in which the business floats anew)
Chapter 26				Doo-wop Da Wadda Wadda (in which Bert dances)
Chapter 27				Oh, Buster (in which Patti postulates a longing)
Chapter 28				Mr. Yummy (in which chance delivers a gift)
Chapter 29				Selling Arcinella (in which three guys buy a dream)
Chapter 30				The End (in which Arcinella sinks and Patti sings)

International Editions
Libros en Español
International Editions

Leaving Small’s Hotel

About the Book				Description and Reviews
Preliminaries				Dedication and Epigraphs
Preface
Chapter 1				The Daughter of Mr. Yummy
Chapter 2				The Rock at the Mouth of the Cave
Chapter 3				Have You Ever Wondered Why Microphones Don’t Resemble Ears?
Chapter 4				Masters of the Arts
Chapter 5				A Case of the Family Illness
Chapter 6				Flying Saucers: The Untold Story
Chapter 7				Disturbing the Field
Chapter 8				Kap’n Klam, the Home of Happy Diners, the House of Hopes and Dreams
Chapter 9				The Wall of Happy Diners
Chapter 10				Kap’n Klam’s Salad Sandwich
Chapter 11				Photographic Proof
Chapter 12				Rush Service
Chapter 13				Local Boy Snaps Shots
Chapter 14				Bivalves from Outer Space
Chapter 15				My Grandfather’s Cave
Chapter 16				Anxiety Pays
Chapter 17				Is Anybody Out There?
Chapter 18				No Worries, No Kidding
Chapter 19				If Saucers Attack
Chapter 20				Gratitude
Chapter 21				A Salesman Calls
Chapter 22				No Sale
Chapter 23				Driving a Bargain
Chapter 24				The Mysteries of Mrs. Jerrold’s Bedroom
Chapter 25				Testing, Testing
Chapter 26				Filling time
Chapter 27				Enough Is Enough
Chapter 28				Artificial Insinuation
Chapter 29				Bedroom Suits
Chapter 30				Butts of the Joke
Chapter 31				Up the On-Ramp to the Road to Riches
Chapter 32				Beyond the Firelight Lies Endless Darkness
Chapter 33				101 Fascinating Electronics Projects
Chapter 34				The Persistence of Memory
Chapter 35				Thank You for Letting Me into Your Home
Chapter 36				The Relay System
Chapter 37				Act Now! Offer Limited!
Chapter 38				A Technical Question
Chapter 39				The Hole and the Hill
Chapter 40				Hardly Working
Chapter 41				The Art of Obvious Subtlety
Chapter 42				Playing to the House
Chapter 43				Refinements and Improvements
Chapter 44				Funny Peculiar
Chapter 45				Project Number 102: Electronic Eavesdropper
Chapter 46				Suspicions Confirmed
Chapter 47				Still No News from Outer Space
Chapter 48				The Lonely Housewife’s Friend
Chapter 49				Shame on Me
Chapter 50				Someone, Somewhere

YOU CAN READ
THE FIRST HALF
OF THE BOOK
HERE,
ONLINE, ONSCREEN,
OR
YOU CAN ORDER THE
PICADOR USA EDITION
AT
AMAZON.COM
OR
BARNES&NOBLE.COM.

Little Follies

About the Book	...	..	Description and Reviews
Preliminaries			Dedication and Epigraph
My Mother Takes a Tumble
Epigraph
Preface			Milestones on the Map of Memory
Chapter 1			The Correspondence of Dudley Beaker and Eliza Foote
Chapter 2			“A Friend to Correspond To”
Chapter 3			“What a Beautiful Morning”
Chapter 4			“Chin Up—Nobody Lives Forever”
Chapter 5			“I’m Wearing Your Gifts”
Chapter 6			“She Certainly Does Have a Breathtaking Figure”
Chapter 7			“It Is All Right with Me, Jack”
Chapter 8			“As Luck Would Have It”
Chapter 9			“Oh, Dear Foolish Jack”
Chapter 10			“Why Don’t You Do Something?”
Chapter 11			“I Am Lying Languidly”
Chapter 12			Dudley Needs a Drink
Chapter 13			Commiseration
Chapter 14			She Is Not
Chapter 15			A Rendezvous Arranged by Benevolent Intervention
Chapter 16			Chasing Kittens (My Life in Miniature)
Do Clams Bite?
Epigraph
Preface			On the Memories of Childhood
Chapter 1			My Pelecypodophobia
Chapter 2			Sawdust
Chapter 3			Black Jacques
Chapter 4			A Rascal with a Knife
Chapter 5			My Prospects Take a Turn for the Worse
Chapter 6			Doomed
Chapter 7			An Aside: It’s the Thought of the Bottom That Keeps Me Up
Chapter 8			Rowing the Waterways of Memory
Chapter 9			Small’s Island, Small’s Hotel
Chapter 10			“Kill Him!”
Chapter 11			On the Techniques and Equipment Necessary for Clamming
Chapter 12			On the Sizes of Clams
Chapter 13			“Let’s Get a Move On”
Chapter 14			Stalking the Wily Bivalve
Chapter 15			Like Son, Like Father
Chapter 16			Coconut Candies
Chapter 17			In Which I Learn That Great-Grandmother Was No Stranger to Sawdust
Chapter 18			A Visit from May
Chapter 19			Black Jacques and Fat Hank
Chapter 20			No Worse Than Losing a Tooth?
Chapter 21			Rodney, a Rascal, Called Raskol
Chapter 22			Clams Don’t Bite . . .
Life on the Bolotomy
Epigraph
Preface			Something Like Clam Chowder
Chapter 1			To the Source!
Chapter 2			Boatmen Since Time Immemorial
Chapter 3			Guppa Plans a Bubble
Chapter 4			The Adventurer’s Bubble
Chapter 5			Bound for Disappointment
Chapter 6			Cap’n Leech
Chapter 7			Taupe
Chapter 8			“A Blood-Curdling Scream”
Chapter 9			Much Depends on Dinner
Chapter 10			Excitement in the Air
Chapter 11			The End of the Beginning
Chapter 12			The Essence of a River
Chapter 13			A Sharp Detail Shining in the Memory
Chapter 14			Peter and the Nymphs, an Idyll
Chapter 15			At the Source
The Static of the Spheres
Preface			Problems, Problems
Chapter 1			Memory and Static
Chapter 2			I Develop an Irresistible Urge
Chapter 3			Bathtub Games
Chapter 4			What I Wanted
Chapter 5			’Round Midnight
Chapter 6			Guppa’s Pigeonholes
Chapter 7			Guppa Takes the Bait
Chapter 8			“Hours of Baffling Precision Work”
Chapter 9			The Occupations of an Early Riser
Chapter 10			Funny How Work Makes You Hungry
Chapter 11			Two Regular Joes
Chapter 12			A Window on the Aesthetic Soul
Chapter 13			Making a Chassis
Chapter 14			In Which Months Pass
Chapter 15			Up to My Knees
Chapter 16			Of Time and Toast
Chapter 17			Bands and Coils
Chapter 18			A Job Like This
Chapter 19			Exactly Right
Chapter 20			“Peter Wants to Try Listening”
Chapter 21			Listening
The Fox and the Clam
The Girl with the White Fur Muff
Take the Long Way Home
Call Me Larry
The Young Tars

Making My Self . . . and Dinner
A Good Chowder Is a Big Chowder
The Flavor of the Past

Passionate Spectator

Contents	...	..
About the Book			Description and Reviews
Preliminaries			Dedication and Epigraphs
Preface			The Groundwork of This Well-Meaning Book
Chapter 1			I Am Among the Many Called
Chapter 2			My Mind, Left to Its Own Devices, Wanders
Chapter 3			I Am Amazed (Again) by Albertine’s Acute Perspicacity
Chapter 4			I Plant a Seed
Chapter 5			On the Reliability of Witnesses
Chapter 6			Stunned, I Make My Way Home
Chapter 7			I Attempt to Make My Mind a Blank, and Fail
Chapter 8			As Matthew, I Am Admitted
Chapter 9			As Matthew, I Begin to Change My Life
Chapter 10			As Matthew, I Have a Close Shave
Chapter 11			As Matthew, I Remember
Chapter 12			As BW, I Take Off
Chapter 13			As BW, I Learn the Lesson of Crab Cakes
Chapter 14			As BW, I Meet a Rebel Angel
Chapter 15			As BW, I Attend the Unveiling of the Limo Fountain
Chapter 16			As BW, I Am Present at the Goosing of the Hamlet Project
Chapter 17			As BW, I Discover Humanity in the Phantoms
Chapter 18			As BW, I Observe the Diners at the Crab Buffet
Chapter 19			As BW, I Pick a Up Few Things in East Phantom
Chapter 20			As Matthew, I’m a Little Mixed Up, but I’m Feeling Fine
Chapter 21			As Matthew, I Reject a Self-Improvement Plan
Chapter 22			As Matthew, I Am Forced to Alter My Assumptions
Chapter 23			As Matthew, I Check Out
Chapter 24			I Am Called for a Voir Dire
Chapter 25			I Am Shaken
Chapter 26			I Paper the Town
Chapter 27			I Get to Say, “Honey, I’m Home”
Chapter 28			I Consider My Luck
Chapter 29			I Effect a Transformation
Chapter 30			I Am at Home

Personal History . . ., The
     About the Work
     Author’s Statement
     A Catalogue of the Work
     International Editions
     Questions (and Comments, from Readers) & Answers (from the Editor)
     Reviews of the Work as a Whole
     Topical Guide to the Complete Peter Leroy (so far), A
     What’s New?

YOU CAN READ
THE FIRST HALF
OF THE BOOK
HERE,
ONLINE, ONSCREEN,
OR
YOU CAN BUY THE
PICADOR USA
PAPERBACK EDITION AT
AMAZON.COM
OR BARNES&NOBLE.COM.

Reservations Recommended

Contents
About the Book			Summary and Reviews
Preliminaries			Dedication and Epigraphs
Preface			Looking for Matthew Barber
Chapter 1			The Alley View Grill
Part 1			A Man in Disguise
Part 2			A Sense of Humor Is the Best Defense
Part 3			A Glass of Gelid Gin
Part 4			“Home of the Free-Ranging Critics”
Part 5			Something Very Film Noir
Part 6			The Height of Contemporary Sophistication
Part 7			Whenever You’re Ready
Part 8			So Many Ideas in Such a Small Thing
Part 9			The Review
Chapter 2			Flynn’s Olde Boston Eating & Drinking Establishment
Part 1			The Neat Graffitist
Part 2			Effie’s Crumbs
Part 3			The Next Big Thing
Part 4			Barber, Party of Six
Part 5			The Grass Is . . .
Part 6			Lift the Least and You Lift Yourself
Part 7			A Sense of Personal Dignity
Part 8			Brain Food
Part 9			“What Do You Do, Belinda?”
Part 10			Body and Soul
Part 11			The Review
Chapter 3			Dolce Far Niente
Part 1			Matthew Acts Out
Part 2			Belinda Wows ’Em
Part 3			How to Bake Bread on a Stick
Part 4			Matthew’s Leisure Pursuits
Part 5			Picture Frame
Part 6			Hilarious Harold
Part 7			Tagliatelle con Fruitti di Mare
Part 8			In the Midst of the Fountain of Wit
Part 9			Matthew Stubs His Toe
Part 10			Bèlla Signorina
Part 11			The Review
Chapter 4			Superior Indian Cookery
Part 1			Liz Makes a Date
Part 2			Liz Makes an Announcement
Part 3			The First Cousin of Reason
Part 4			A Singular Nut
Chapter 5			Café Zurich
Chapter 6			Two-Two-Two
Chapter 7			Ike’s

Search the Site [CLICK HERE]

Topical Guide to the Complete Peter Leroy (so far), A

Appearances
Art
Author as Other, the
Babbington
Barber, Matthew
Beaker, Dudley
Beath, Bertram W.
Beauty
Black Jacques and Fat Hank
Boats, Rowboats, Sinking Boats
Books and Reading
Boundaries and Edges
Calder, Burton
Chacallit, New York
Clam Chowder
Clam, Happy as a
Coincidence
Cross-Reference
Details
Disguises
Dorset Diagram
Dorset, Mark
Dust
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Facts
Folly
Foote, Eliza
Fried Foods
Hope
Human Nature
Humor in Life and Art
Imagination, Products of the
Intention
Irony
Kitsch
Kraft, Eric
Leroy, Ella Piper
Leroy, Peter
Life, Everyday
Little Things of Life, the
Lodkochnikov, Ariane
Lodkochnikov, Rodney
Memory
Memory, Faulty
Minutiae of Everyday Life
Peters, Larry
Proust, Marcel
Reader, the
Reality
Revision
Sarcasm
Sentiment
Shandy
Small’s Island
Soul, the
Thinking Backwards
Time
Wishful Thinking
Work
World, Another
Writing
Zizyph

Very Large Fiction
     What the Author Is Up To
     So Many Selves: The Author and His Characters
     I Am (He Is) a Man of His (My) Words
     Peter Leroy and Me

YOU CAN READ
THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS
OF THE BOOK HERE,
ONLINE, ONSCREEN.

YOU CAN BUY THE
PICADOR USA
PAPERBACK EDITION AT
AMAZON.COM
OR
BARNES&NOBLE.COM

What a Piece of Work I Am

About the Book	...	Summary and Reviews
Preliminaries
Preface		The Sultry Older Sister of My Imaginary Friend
Chapter 1		Tootsie Koochikov
Chapter 2		The Sad Tale of Ariadne, Stranded on Naxos Without a Clue
Chapter 3		Were the Fates Sending Me Some Kind of Warning?
Chapter 4		Denny
Chapter 5		Corinne’s Fabulous Fruits of the Sea
Chapter 6		A Farewell to Softness
Chapter 7		Not a Bottomy Thing
Chapter 8		Trespassing
Chapter 9		POA
Chapter 10		Skinning Eels and Making Chowder
Chapter 11		The Sunrise Cove Resort Motel
Chapter 12		Something New, Something to Talk About
Chapter 13		A Little Insight Can Be Dangerous
Chapter 14		A Guy Named Guy
Chapter 15		The Temptation of an Open Door
Chapter 16		All Dressed Up with No Place to Go
Chapter 17		The Manifest Destiny Diner
Chapter 18		Remember This: Love Alters Your Perceptions
Chapter 19		Lesson One in the Motel Business
Chapter 20		Whatever Needs Doing
Chapter 21		The Backside of Privacy
Chapter 22		Trespassing Again
Chapter 23		A Disappointing Guy
Chapter 24		True Confessions
Chapter 25		Our Own Place: A Tempting Vision of the Future
Chapter 26		A Mistake, Nothing More
Chapter 27		The Immediate Jewel of the Soul
Chapter 28		A Little Mischief
Chapter 29		The Man at the Table in the Back of the Room, Alone
Chapter 30		The Idea of "Always," the Shape of "Forever" in My Mouth
Chapter 31		Hanging On
Chapter 32		"Come On, Honey, Come with Me"
Chapter 33		No Turning Back
Chapter 34		The Terror of the Known Versus the Terror of the Unknown
Chapter 35		The Generous Thing
Chapter 36		Signing On
Chapter 37		Sometimes We See (Sometimes We Don’t)
Chapter 38		The Euphonious Isles
Chapter 39		Stealing Privacy
Chapter 40		A Big Voice, Deep, with a Rhythm and Sonority Like the Sea
Chapter 41		Sail On
Chapter 42		Racing with the Wind
Chapter 43		Reaching Rarotonga
Chapter 44		Tootsie, You Need a Drink
Chapter 45		To Rarotonga
Chapter 46		Seeing Red and Meeting Greg and Being Propositioned
Chapter 47		A Cynosure, an Artist of the Self
Chapter 48		To Be Continued
Chapter 49		On Display
Chapter 50		Ariane Underway
Chapter 51		In a Life, Every Accident Is Part of the Story
Chapter 52		Duncan Rollo of the Zoning Board
Chapter 53		In Every Life, There Is Some Celery
Chapter 54		Sex in the Panopticon
Chapter 55		In the Labyrinth of Life, There Are Many Turnings
Chapter 56		Ambitious Lovers
Chapter 57		"How I Felt About the War"
Chapter 58		An Unforgettable Moment, A Crowd-Pleaser
Chapter 59		Hold on to the Narrative Thread of Your Life
Chapter 60		The Flickering Evidence of Hidden Moments of Inner Activity
Chapter 61		The Time Has Come . . .
Chapter 62		Out the Door
Chapter 63		On Display
Chapter 64		"Making My Self"
Chapter 65		"Serving Myself As If I Were Company’
Chapter 66		To Make a Work of Art, First Make an Artist
Chapter 67		Three Points Define a Plane, But Not a Life
Chapter 68		In Search of the Center of the World
Chapter 69		"I Will Be by Myself"
Chapter 70		A Model for Living in One Place
Chapter 71		A Vivid Imagination Can Be a Dangerous Thing
Chapter 72		Here I Am, at Last

YOU CAN READ THE FIRST THIRD
OF THE BOOK HERE,
ONLINE, ONSCREEN.

YOU CAN BUY THE
PICADOR USA
PAPERBACK EDITION AT
AMAZON.COM
OR
BARNES&NOBLE.COM

Where Do You Stop?

About the Book		Summary and Reviews
Preliminaries		Dedication and Epigraphs
Preface		Of Memory and Mush
Chapter 1		Fantastic Contraptions
Chapter 2		The Breadbasket of Babbington
Chapter 3		The Real Value of Junk
Chapter 4		The Mother Lode of Scrap
Chapter 5		Splines
Chapter 6		The Confusing Midgame in Chinese Checkers
Chapter 7		Miss Rheingold’s Big Questions
Chapter 8		The Smell of New Pencils
Chapter 9		The Pleasure of Surprise
Chapter 10		Ontology, Epistemology, Bills of Lading
Chapter 11		The Powerfully Disturbing Effect of Discontinuity
Chapter 12		Quanto the Minimum
Chapter 13		Patti Fiorenza Explains Zwischenraum
Chapter 14		Matthew Muses
Chapter 15		Within My Range
Chapter 16		Scrub Oaks
Chapter 17		Windflowers and Court Bouillon
Chapter 18		Bonne Soupe
Chapter 19		Shandy
Chapter 20		Depreciation and Diffusion
Chapter 21		Waterwillows
Chapter 22		The Builder’s Look
Chapter 23		The Value of the Experimental Method
Chapter 24		Television Comes to the Lodkochnikovs
Chapter 25		The Electric Moonlight of the Round-Faced Set
Chapter 26		A Slip
Chapter 27		Uncertainty
Chapter 28		“There She Was, Just as I’d Hoped”
Chapter 29		Following the Route of Cross-References
Chapter 30		Ariane’s Hip
Chapter 31		Miss Rheingold’s Resignation
Chapter 32		If Legs Were Electrons . . .
Chapter 33		In Which My Father Becomes a Homo Sapiens
Chapter 34		Our Final Contestants
Chapter 35		The Game We Came to Call “Night Watchman”
Chapter 36		Caught!
Chapter 37		A Cosmic Snapshot

Quanto the Minimum
The Mousetrap Model of an Atomic Chain Reaction