The Floating Opera Author:John Barth "Why The Floating Opera? Well, that's part of the name of a showboat that used to travel around the Virginia and Maryland tidewater areas, and some of this book happens aboard it...The boat wouldn't be moored, but would drift up and down the river on the tide, and the audience would sit along both banks. They would catch whatever part of the plo... more »t happened to unfold as the boat floated past, and then they'd have to wait until the tide ran back again to catch another snatch of it, if they still happened to be sitting there. To fill in the gaps they'd have to use their imaginations, or ask more attentive neighbors, or hear the word passed along from upstream or downstream. Most times they wouldn't understand what was going on at all, or they'd think they knew, when actually they didn't. Lots of times they'd be able to see the actors, but not hear them. I needn't explain that that's how much of life works ..."« less
Really good-- it surprised me in college when i was assigned so many books that were totally awesome -- who would've guessed? (Can you tell what decade i went to college? LOL)