Every Man Must Build a Home

L.A. Heberlein’s novel mixes science fiction, meta-fiction, literary "quizzes" about the theme of search in American literature, and multi-viewpoint narrations—all working toward the novel’s own theme: just what drives us toward security? The main character, Swallow, drifts from woman to woman in a nearly magical way. ("You were right," his ex-lover’s lesbian mate allows after Swallow receives two phone calls from women within the one day and night after dropping in from out-of-state.) But the emphasis is on "drifting," and Swallow knows it. At first, he’s diffident as he moves from the western plains across America, suspecting those who settle down might be androids and even checking for seams in their necks on a train ride. Then he joins a band known as Fire, which threatens to deplete the entire universe’s supply of energy with each succeeding performance. Intermittently, more and more women "save" him. But near the end, a harrowing encounter with a professional arsonist who’s hired by a union to burn down scab labor housing developments shifts matters. Here, Swallow joins the novel’s many narrators, including a teenage boy whose mother temporarily befriends Swallow and a faux-author who teaches English at a Montana university, to push the search for what every one must do: build a "home."