A new edition of a classic of contemporary American literature, first
published in 1997 by Sun & Moon Press but unavailable in recent years.
Dra--, the nondescript heroine of this grim, hilarious fiction, might
have fallen through the same hole as Lewis Carroll's Alice, only now,
130 years later, there's no time for frivolity, just the pressing need
to get a job. In a sealed, modern Wonderland of small stifled work
centers, basements and sub-basements, night niches, and training hutches
connected by hallways just inches across, Dra-- seeks employment . . .
This labyrinthine journey is brilliantly mimicked in the architecture of
the prose. Levine creates cozy little warrens, small safe spaces made of
short clear sentences, then sends the reader spiraling down long broken
passages, fragmented by colons and semi-colons which give a halting,
lurching gait to our progress. A quest, a comedy of manners, and a
parable, Dra-- is, above all else, a philosophical novel concerned
with the most basic questions of living.