The fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 marked, in one famous formulation, the "end of history." In his apocalyptic novel"Coming from an Off-Key Time, "Bogdan Suceavasatirizes the events in his native Romania since the violent end of the Ceausescu regime that fateful year.

Suceavauses three interrelated narratives to illustrate the destructive power of Romanian society s most powerful mythologies. He depicts madness of all kinds but especially religious beliefs and their perversion by all manner of outrageous sects. Here horror and humor reside impossibly in the same time and...