Interested in literary fiction that has a new take on classic literature? My novel is actually a reworking of Henry James's Washington Square. Readers who liked A Confederacy of Dunces would also like my book. The genders are reversed, the story is moved forward half a century, but the fundamental conflicts are the same. My novel, A Most Lost King, takes place in America in the Eighties. I prefer, if I must work inside a specific genre, to call my work literary. “High concept fiction” is perhaps the more precise term. Although other books and novelists are mentioned throughout A Most Lost King, Henry James is not one of them. A hint that there is an underlying theme to be discovered is one thing; a key to the theme on a velvet lined plate is quite another.

A Most Lost King is the story of a 29 year old alcoholic, Charlie, who has an accident involving broken glass which lands him in a rehab against his will, prevents him from returning to liquor, and opens the far scarier door: sobriety. This is because a few pieces of broken glass entered his body, also against his will. The story takes place in the New York City of the 1980s, a time when AIDS was in its infancy and the fear of catching AIDS, through any number of ways, ran ramped. This is the backdrop for a distinctly neurotic love story between an ill educated agnostic and a half Jewish girl who aspires to become all Jewish, despite her mother's misgivings to the faith.

Impoverished, in denial, misunderstood and lonely, Charlie starts the story when he is compelled by compassion to put his aching, aging show dog to sleep. He sets off from the suburbs to the glitter of New York City where he hopes to find a soggy spark of a shoulder to sob on with a woman he knows but infrequently sees. The opening sentence is actually a corrupted opening sentence which pays homage to Camus. Are there 100 dorky questions at the end of the book to help you gain a better appreciation? Nah. That's your job. 

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