2000 Random House hardcover, with dust jacket. This was on my list of best modern books to read when I bought this copy a few weeks ago for 25 cents from the sale shelf at Dimond Library.

Edit July 4, 2014: This was one of those books that are much favored by the literati elite, which are just an awful read. The issues with it are typical: It is populated with characters who all speak in intellectualisms, which everybody always takes with deadly seriousness, never cracking a joke at the absurdity of the comments at any time, or just tuning them out once in a while, and changing the subject, as happens in real life. That could be fine, in part, with intelligent, educated characters, as is sort of the case here. But, at the same time, the dialogue from the same characters is peppered with the coarsest profanity, in the way that nobody ever speaks, except in the imaginations of the elite intellectuallized literati of academe, who have no experience at all with actual street talk by street trash who speak with that limited vocabulary because they generally lack a quantity of brain cells. Again, nobody ever calls anybody on it here about the coarseness of the chosen words. It is jarring, and lacks any sense of credibility. But modern academics seem to gush over things like this. Maybe they are so removed from the real grittiness of urban streets that they don't see the gratuitous falseness of it. Anyway, it just makes me roll my eyes and yawn. I currently have this ranked at #1,551 on my ranked list of best-read books lately.

... in the free books box on the porch.

And a plug for the next meetup of TriValley BookCrossing group, at Panera Bread in Dublin, the second Tuesday of each month.

Aside from loving shared books, my main passion in life is supporting the human rights work of my good friend, Anni Cyrus. 💖 💖 Her life story of survival as a childhood refugee is astounding, and quite moving!

Please look her up on Google and YouTube. You can also follow her on Facebook and Instagram, among other platforms.