"The Women", T. C. Boyle, 2009

This book had me running between the dictionary (half of the time for non-existent words, but you'll know what Boyle means) and the computer (to look up referenced people and architectural feats). And it was a marvelous labor. (Most places are real, characters not.) The morphine addict is insane, by the way. Actually, FLLW. seemed to make everyone insane. And yet this story is infused with Everyman. I comprehend the angst in the book too well I fear. Boyle shows that he writes as well from the feminine as the masculine. I would nominate this novel as one of the decade's top ten. Tom (the author) is lucky enough and sincere enough to live in one of Wrieto-San's (this term coined by one of the fervent fictional characters, Tadashi Sato) concoctions, the George C. Stewart House. His other top five novels are (opinionated): "Riven Rock" (his best and another historical novel; worthy of a best of the 1990s), "The Road to Wellville" (about the Kellogg cereal nut), in a different vein would be "Tortilla Curtain" (his 2nd. best), "Budding Prospects" for stoners, and "East is East" with a worthy Japanese main character (like "The Women").