"Brock Downsized" - the story
When the prostheses and condom manufacturing factory where Bill Brock has been Communications Manager goes belly-up Brock finds himself out on the street. In this comic but ultimately serious novel, Brock is obliged to take up the somewhat undignified role of wedding videogra¬pher. At the same time he is suddenly faced with a series of mid-life setbacks. His prostate goes floppy down, and the jolly, high-spirited doctors pre¬scribe every type of wrong medication, while at the same time the nutty sexy wife of his nutty psychiatrist tries to seduce him, his aged father is dying in a nursing home, his nextdoor neigh¬bor draws him unwittingly into a kiddyporn ring, and his artist son is implicated as a terrorist storing fertilizer and metal bomb parts in the family's backyard, while his daughter's infatuation with a married man is about to drive him crazy. After all this, and quite a bit more, Brock finds himself, one could say, a bit discomfitted. Brock's spirit is indomitable, however, as he flounders about attempting to gain control over his life. The humor is laugh-out-loud comical, and yet the book has moments that are often deeply moving, while eschewing false sentimentality.