“He speaks in your voice, American, and there’s a shine in his eye that’s halfway hopeful.”
Prologue: The Triumph of Death (1951)
The novel opens with the famous “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” baseball game between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 3, 1951. J. Edgar Hoover receives news of a Soviet nuclear test during the game, intertwining Cold War anxieties with American pastime. A young boy, Cotter Martin, steals the home run ball hit by Bobby Thomson, setting off a decades-long chain of ownership.
Part 1: Long Tall Sally (1970s–1990s)
The narrative jumps ahead to the 1970s-1990s, following Nick Shay, a waste management executive haunted by his past. His wife, Marian, collects abandoned refrigerators as art. The story shifts between Nick’s present life and his youth in the Bronx, where he was involved in a fatal shooting.
Part 2: Elegy for Left Hand Alone (1980s–1990s)
Nick reconnects with his estranged brother, Matt, a conspiracy theorist. Meanwhile, artist Klara Sax is working on a project painting decommissioned warplanes in the desert. The section explores themes of waste, memory, and the lingering effects of the Cold War.
Part 3: The Cloud of Unknowing (1950s–1970s)
Flashbacks reveal Nick’s troubled adolescence, including his time at a reform school after the shooting. The narrative also follows Sister Edgar, a nun in the Bronx who witnesses urban decay and miracles, and Lenny Bruce’s paranoid stand-up routines about nuclear annihilation.
Interlude: Cocksucker Blues (1960s)
A surreal vignette follows a fictionalized version of Lenny Bruce’s drug-fueled performances, blending dark humor with Cold War dread.
Part 4: Das Kapital (1990s)
Nick travels to Kazakhstan to investigate nuclear waste disposal, confronting the legacy of Soviet-American tensions. Meanwhile, the stolen baseball resurfaces in the hands of a memorabilia collector, Marvin Lundy, who obsesses over its history.
Part 5: Epilogue: Arrangement in Gray and Black (1990s)
Sister Edgar dies and experiences a mystical vision of the internet as a collective afterlife. The baseball’s journey concludes ambiguously, symbolizing the unresolved tensions of American history. The novel ends with a meditation on waste, memory, and the passage of time.
Key ideas
- Cold War paranoia and its psychological impact
- The commodification of history and memory
- Waste as a metaphor for American excess
- The intersection of personal and national trauma
- Conspiracy theories as a response to chaos
Who should read this book?
- Fans of sprawling, postmodern American epics
- Readers interested in Cold War history and its cultural effects
- Those who appreciate dense, philosophical prose