"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.
