Life Askew

MEET ROLAND SPRING, a cashier on the graveyard shift at the world's largest 24-hour specialty-foods supermarket - otherwise known as the Food Expo. To Roland, the Food Expo is home, a place he feels comfortable and in control. But a massive, multinational corporation has just swallowed the store whole, changing everything for Roland, presenting him with dazzling opportunities - not to mention a new group of corporate coworkers who drive him crazy with their juvenile pranks. Minimalist, misfit, master of all that food! Roland Spring is everyman, though every woman in the world ignores him. Until he meets his match in Mynewt, that is. Roland and Mynewt take geek love to new highs - and, alas, lows . . . But what about the store? At the Food Expo, shoppers and tourists enjoy the carnival atmosphere, the free samples, and the exotic fare, unmatched in all the world. (And, watch out, man - there''s things in that place that''ll kill ya, but you''ll die pretty!) It all takes place in Cosmette, the largest, most densely populated and vertically realized city on the planet - where tow trucks rule the streets, and greed is, indeed, good. Will Roland enjoy success with his new corporate masters? Will he find, and keep, the love of his life? Will he ever luck into a legal parking space? These and other important questions are answered in the hilarious Life Askew - an urban fable of epic proportion. Fans of T.C. Boyle, Martin Amis, John Irving, Mark Helprin - and especially John Kennedy Toole - will appreciate Barry Patrick Fitzsimmons's peculiar perspective, and his satisfying first novel.