Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
At the age of forty-nine, after a lifetime of insomnia and midnight peril, William Cowling believes the hour has come for him to seize control. He begins to dig a hole in his backyard: a shelter against impending doom for his daughter (who thinks he's crazy) and his wife (who won't speak to him). As he works, he reviews his life, and how the injustices and insanities of our age--from the vicissitudes of high school to the heartbreaking compromises of political commitment, from "the slow hardening of a generation's arteries" in the wake of Vietnam to the very real threat of nuclear annihilation that everyone evades and denies--have led him to the edge of his own abyss. Ultimately, he must make a choice: safety or sanity, love or fidelity to the truth.