Chapter One.

And so it begins.

And bizarrely, it began, for me, in a pizza joint. Almost a diner! Alas, unlike Harry, I did not have some hot little number waiting on me, but rather, a disinterested man behind the counter. The effect of the pizza, however, was the same as the Monte Cristo: bloating.

I really liked the line about the "time honored tradition of epiphanies." There were a bunch of great moments like that, where it was clear that Mark was playing around with "literary tricks," giving us a wink, if you will, that he KNOWS these things can be hackneyed (in lesser hands).

Love the closing line. All this time in the diner, without a hint that his important meeting is his wife's funeral??? Such restraint -- like expelling a fart outside the opera house, rather than inside.

I am more than ready to find out how this Harry Rent goes about "revising" himself, and whether it is for the good or not (me thinks it will be FTG).