Handbook for Drowning features interconnected stories dealing with Walter, a young man trying to understand his parents, his ideals, and his emotions.
Walter Jaffe grows up in a family obsessed with social justice; Walter fixates on his own mortality. The novel's pointillistic structure reflects the gap between the grief Walter feels for his dying mother and the impersonal rationality he's been taught to practice.
(Tags : Handbook for Drowning: A Novel in Stories (Unabridged) David Shields Audiobook, David Shields Audio CD )