A recent college graduate, Matt Miller, takes a summer job on the carnival, hoping to make a large sum of money in a short amount of time. On the road, he runs afoul of Butz, a tough, ruthless carnie whose profits he is cutting into.

I thought I knew something about poverty in America, but it turns out I knew nothing.

Throughout history, the simple answer to the question of who owns what, and why has been competition. The strongest, smartest, and, yes, the luckiest, have always enjoyed an abundance of wealth and its byproducts: security, freedom, and pleasure. The weakest in every society have always suffered from a lack of these.

For the past 35 years, I’ve carried a play around in my head. I’ve read books, imagined scenes, written smidgens of dialogue. I’ve even started drafting the play several times – and then abruptly stopped.

We're one step closer to weejees, the main form of transportation in The Islander.

In 2161, civil war has broken out between the Guild Dominions and the Islanders. American fights American. Families are torn apart. No one is safe. The free Islanders are rounded up and placed back inside the walls of Island 42, where they freeze or starve. In the Mountain West, the two armies grow increasingly brutal in their pursuit of victory.

If your book club would like to read Phoebe and Zoe, I'd be happy to attend and lead a discussion or answer questions. Of course, I won't be driving to California, but only places a short distance from the Twin Cities. I've done a number of these in the past, and they're always entertaining. If you're interested, send me a note at cwhittlesey@comcast.net.

It’s hard to refute that for the last 100 years irony has ruled the world of fiction. From Lolita to Rabbit, Run to White Noise, our 20th century fictional worlds have been populated by the deviant, the dysfunctional, and the lost.