Eclectic Libbyland Author:Francis Dipietro Is he a delusional coward, or the remnant of an exiled visionary? At times, Walton Friendly can seem like any number of things; from an obsessive-compulsive Mormon who stalks an astonishing woman named Libby Hendricks (and keeps notes on her activities in the margins of his Mormon Bible), to an artist vanquished from the core of his beliefs, and... more » forced to adopt drugs and hallucination as his reality. He wanders through a dreamscape of emotions, and enlists on his quest to gain Libby’s affections the most unlikely of helpers: William “Crazy Bill” Capresci, self-proclaimed kingpin of the subway derelicts, yet once an honest man. Walton and Bill connect on a level which sees them sharing their contempt for commercialized society, and they are each radically revolting (pun intended). Walton thinks he deserted the United States Army during Operation Desert Storm—as well as three wives in Utah who found him to be largely impotent. Bill has deserted people, preferring the regularity of trains to the disparity of human kindness. They agree to unite in the quest for Libby, for it will surely be their last attempt to find some redeeming element in a world which has swiftly abandoned them. Serving as a trump to this situation is the possibility that Walton Friendly may actually be the deposed President of the United States, made to disappear in an elaborate and conjoining plot between the CIA, FBI, NSA, Pentagon, and Joint Chiefs. He had radical ideas which were beginning to shake the infrastructure of the old power system. Could Libby be nothing more than a willing, paid participant in the deadening and reprogramming of a revolutionary political mind who is still too potentially useful to kill? Or is Libby the true heart and source of the project?« less