THE PAGEANT OF DYSFUNCTION

By: Sam P. Israel

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

A ROLLICKING, ENTERTAINING RIDE

THE PAGEANT OF DYSFUNCTION is an absurdist novel about the life of Ivan Spinoza, a fictional descendant of philosopher Baruch Spinoza who suffers from a cascade of modern ills, including bipolar disorder, beginning from his youth in the 1970s up until his battle in his fifties with Covid. The novel evokes the works of Saul Bellow, notably THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH, but with a tilted worldview reminiscent of Tom Robbins.

Ivan Spinoza is a boy, and later a man, who either can’t or won’t change. Raised in Queens, New York, by a father who sells toupees and a mother who scribbles feminist screeds on the walls of their home, Ivan is left emotionally to fend for himself. Mentored by a parade of noteworthy but sketchy characters – Jim the Parky, Sergeant Clemmons, and THE LOCK, among others – Ivan, deep down, searches for love and acceptance yet finds himself incapable of reciprocating such intimacies as he matures into adolescence and adulthood. Self-taught, wickedly smart and attractive, Ivan becomes a successful attorney but fails to sustain even one healthy relationship, including that with his long-suffering wife, Ophelia.

THE PAGEANT OF DYSFUNCTION opens a unique and sensitive window into bipolar disorder and explores the effects of the crushing blows to one’s identity that contemporary American society exacts. This humorous, poignant and entertaining work deftly shifts points of view to reveal Ivan’s emotional state throughout the years, and the rhythm of the narrative also varies to reflect Ivan’s respective manic and depressive states.