Last Refuge of a Scoundrel (PB) (2017)

Part epistolary novel laced with flights of magic realism escapist fantasy, part bellettrist polemic debating a shopping list of culture war topics, Last Refuge of a Scoundrel is an unusual, multifaceted and densely textured book meant to linger on your palate long after you put it down. Much of the action revolves around a bitter, protracted homeowners association dispute in north San Diego County, alternately, hilarious and enraging. It's a novel of ideas, ever strumming the "as above, so below" riff and its obverse, as well as the never-tiring theme of the individual against the collective, and a less cartoonish construction of the meaning of patriotism. Will the reader be surprised by how and where the protagonist at last finds his refuge?