Passionate Spectator

Peter Leroy

In the ninth volume of his memoirs, Peter Leroy, summoned for jury duty, allows his mind to wander, and slips into the mind of Matthew Barber, who finds himself in the cardiac catheter lab in a Boston hospital, where he allows his mind to wander, and slips into the mind of Bertram W. Beath, who checks into a hotel in Miami’s South Beach and into a life as an erotic opportunist and passionate spectator of beauty and human folly.

“Middle age, mortality, and the meaning of life: all are examined with the lightest touch imaginable.
     Kirkus Reviews

“Ebullient, canny, and entertaining.
     Donna Seaman, Booklist

“As devious as a Möbius strip, turning in on itself, doubling back through events that have already occurred, and generally subverting our Newtonian world view.”
     David Kirby, St. Petersburg Times

“A personal journey that is mundane in detail yet mythic in scope . . . a gamboling reflection on the ways in which memory shapes supposedly objective history . . . colorful, incisive prose and off-kilter wit.”
     Steve Smith, Time Out New York

Nothing less than an assessment of each person’s place in the universe . . . as a spectator who gives shape to life simply by watching and remembering.”
     Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene

When Peter Leroy buys a copy of Creative Self-Promotion for Taxidermists from a street bum, he unwittingly sets in motion an odyssey from truth to fiction to truth in a novel that is much less confusing and more revealing than these few words might indicate.”
     Dallas Morning News