Truly a master of envelope-pushing, post-postmodern American fiction, in a class with Nicholas Baker and Lydia Davis, Powell brilliantly blends the sublime, the trivial, and the oddball in , as two loquacious gents on a porch discuss all manner of subjects, from the mundane to the spiritual to the downright ridiculous. At once outrageously funny and profound, is yet another brilliant, boundary-bursting masterwork, proving once again that, “there are few writers who understand both the beauty and the absurdity of language as well as Padgett Powell” (Kevin Wilson, author of ) and that, “Padgett Powell is one of the best writers in America, and one of the funniest, too” (Ian Frazier). won the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction.