Set in San Francisco, A Most Contrived World recounts the author's
visit to the mythic Californian city. While the novel is based in this
real experience, the narrator's imaginative reflections cause the
narrative to balloon outward into the realms of fiction and fantasy.
Each chance encounter provides an opportunity to unfurl a fictional
world that simultaneously complements and compromises the real world. In
this mirthful anti-novel, the ambiguous fusion of observation and
invention disrupts the conventions of personal memoir and travel
writing, resulting in a chronicle that sets fiction against experience.