While we're on the topic of intelligent stimulation available between two covers, we'd like to draw your attention to this fine collection of essays, also written by one of America's top contemporary fiction writers. Topics delved into here include:  whether or not its worth the trouble to bother to try to write a novel in today's day and age; why perfectly intelligent people, completely aware of the risks, nevertheless continue to smoke cigarettes; how to deal with the gradual decline and death of a parent; the prison industry -- from both inside and outside the walls; a revelatory account of how we here in America have some seriously wrong ideas about privacy; and, added to this softcover edition, a new essay on William Gaddis.  Smartly and persuasively written, you'll put down this book with a heightened sense of the world around you.