If you tend to be suspicious of dogma-theological, political, poetic, and quadrapedal-then Catma might be the book for you. The gospel according to Dr. Phil, drones in Pakistan, literary ediots, eloquent felines-what is there not to love? For Americans who wonder "What would history be like if God had created Prozac on the first day?" or "How might a poem vandalize your McMansion?" or "Is the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts really the redoubtable rapper Albino Rice?" Gilbert Allen can provide definitive answers that go only halfway across the page.

An affectionate satire of the culture of self-indulgence, The Final Days of Great American Shopping exposes the American obsessions with money, mass marketing, and material objects. In Belladonna, a gated subdivision in upstate South Carolina, readers meet acolorful cast of characters doing their best to buy happiness in a series of sixteen closely linked stories from the past, present, and future. Whether speed dating, test driving cars, upsizing to dream houses, flying helicopters, or lusting after designer shoes, these small-town spenders have good intentions that often go hilariously awry...