During a deadly Chicago heat wave thatAEs claiming hundreds of lives, Robert, whoAEs stuck in his apartment alone, fears heAEs going to be the next victim. In the apartment above him lives a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran who talks obsessively about the corpses of his war experience while alternately listening to Die Meistersinger and Madama Butterfly. One day, Robert ventures forth into the searing heat to gas up his car. Immediately he encounters enigmatic Lucy who is trying to escape her brutal fianc/u00e9, Matthew Gliss. On a whim, Lucy invites Robert to her apartment where she shows him her mysterious tattoo and tells him of her dangerous life with Matthew Gliss. She warns Robert that if Matthew ever catches them together he should run, not walk, because Matthew wonAEt think twice of killing him. So begins the risky, short-lived relationship that leads to a chilling climax. Each of RobertAEs increasingly hallucinatory recollections of what happened during the heat wave leads him to profoundly question his own culpability.

Book Information
ISBN 9780875806297
Author Joseph G. Peterson
Format Paperback
Page Count 206
Imprint Northern Illinois University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press