|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
The novel begins as a first person account of Valentine's adventures in the outer worlds of the solar system as he attempts to make his way to Luna in order to play King Lear in an upcoming production. Valentine is a consummate actor and a skilled con man. It is by exercising the latter skill that he runs afoul of the Charonese Mafia, personified by the cold-blooded and nigh-unkillable assassin Isambard Comfort. The story is punctuated by several extended flashback sequences in which we learn that Valentine's father, a frustrated stage actor, has groomed his son to follow in his footsteps. It is Valentine Sr.'s megalomania and obsession with the stage that sets the tone for much of the flashback material. While his father is auditioning for a role somewhere else and has left young Kenneth to his own devices, Valentine "accidentally" auditions for a part in a new children's adventure show called "Sparky and His Gang" and is cast in the lead role. As the show becomes increasingly popular, Valentine Sr. becomes more and more difficult for his son and the producers of the show to deal with.
At times, both in the main story and in flashback, Valentine meets with a mysterious character named Elwood. It is ambiguous in the narrative exactly what type of being Elwood is, however. As the novel progresses, both in the present and in flashback, the character is more fully identified as Elwood P. Dowd and said to look very much like actor Jimmy Stewart, who played a similarly-named character in Harvey. Though the reader gradually comes to believe Elwood is a figment of Valentine's imagination, the climactic confrontation between Valentine and his father blurs this distinction considerably. However, Valentine narrates his own flashbacks for the reader, and as much as states that he may be an unreliable narrator. It is revealed in both the main and flashback storylines that Valentine killed (or is believed to have killed) his father. In the main storyline, he is eventually put on trial for the offense, and his case is weighed by the Central Computer of Luna. Genetic tests reveal that Valentine is actually a clone of his father (further evidence of the maniacal self-absorption of the father). The fact that cloning was illegal at the time of his father's murder causes the Central Computer to declare that no crime was committed, as the only legal remedy in place at the time was for one clone or the other to be destroyed. At the conclusion of the novel, Valentine says that he has reclaimed his fortune (long inaccessible to him during his life on the run) and thrown in his lot with the Heinleiners, a reclusive group of libertarian idealists who are planning a voyage to the stars. Sites |
Searched sites for "The Golden Globe" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
|||||||||
|
Submit
your site |
|
Relevant quality search results and fast easy navigation throughout the
different sections of the site, make Americola.com |