An unsung masterpiece squatting in the ashes of the sixties, The
Nenoquich is the diary of a seducer hammering on the walls of his own
loneliness.
One day, eavesdropping on a phone call, Harold Raab, a writer with
nothing to write, hears his roommate refer intriguingly to a woman
Harold has never met. Curiosity leads to obsession and to an affair with
the married Charlotte Cobin, all of which Harold faithfully records in
the notebook that becomes his deeper obsession. As the relationship with
Charlotte complicates and darkens, Harold's poisons emerge. He's
discovered a subject he can write about, but now reveals himself as
someone whose intelligence, wit, and sexual delirium mask a terror of
human connection. Adrift in the ruins of 1970s Berkeley, he is--like the
dark hero of a nineteenth century romance--disastrously unprepared for
actual love, and even for life.
Originally published in 1982 under the title False Match, and long out
of print, The Nenoquich is an unsparing, painful, and often very funny
story of fading illusions. It captures a generation at sea, and a
seducer out of his depth. This edition includes a new preface by the
author.
