Zeno's Arrow (San Francisco Trilogy Book 2)

Semler’s gargantuan work The San Francisco Trilogy, which began with Occam’s Razor, covering the tumultuous Seventies, continues in Zeno’s Arrow as the characters struggle with their fates in the eighties and nineties, each searching for their own “authentic” reality. Elusive and asexual Larry continues to search for the absolute synthesizing Eastern and Western thought. Hippie simpleton Summer, his friend, writes rock criticism, worships Iggy Pop, acquires real estate, and discovers his sexuality, moving to the gay Castro district. Larry’s daughter, logical philosopher Tashi, takes her mother’s ashes to Tibet only to get arrested by the Chinese for counter-revolutionary activity. Somerset Maugham’s Razor’s Edge is pastiched as the characters realize they are living the lives of his characters. Maugham himself appears to comment on the current characters. Zeno’s Arrow, equal parts philosophical comedy, and stories of mystically connected states of mind, including the sanctuary city of San Francisco’s, ultimately admits time is illusory, and we are all simply enigmatic memories, dreams, and words.