Skull of the Robot

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.)
Chapter 5: At Lafcadio's party, Max trances lyrics for Meri while performing with Tim and Arthur. Arthur knows something. "Meri" is short for "America". Max walks with Meri. Chapter 6. Before he leaves for on a trip around the world, Arthur tries to warn Max about Meri's secret, but Max won't let him. They fight.

(Please start with Installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 20. Wandering, Max remembers primal forces, connection of dark and light. Max remembers the free feeling of nature. He feels it again. Chapter 21. Max discovers a new mailbox. He deciphers Meri's coded note of complicated love. Alexander calls drunk from Wyoming, abandoned by Suzy. Arthur appears, back from his long world voyage with a gift, a totem. Arthur helps him destroy the evil eye.

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 19. Alexander departs for California with Suzy. Max fights with Yvonne weakly. Lafcadio confesses he introduced Suzy to Meri two years ago to hurt Max. Max and Yvonne fight and break-up. (www.robotskull.podshow.com) (www.petergelman.badongo.com)

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 17. Max has "YMYMYR" tattooed over his heart. Someone smashes his mailbox--Meri? Yvonne exasperates Max again. Chapter 18. Alexander surprises Max, admits he's taking Suzy to California and that Meri is jealous. Worse, she thinks Max is with Suzy. (www.robotskull.podshow.com) (www.petergelman.badongo.com)

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 15: Max can't find a job. He meets Meri and she confesses complex, hopeless feelings. Max reads to her an agitated letter he wrote but never sent. Max is cracking. Chapter 16. Max thinks Alexander has moved out. Lafcadio tells Max that Alexander has a girlfriend, Suzy. Suzy's mother fired Max and Alexander last summer. (www.robotskull.podshow.com) (www.petergelman.badongo.com)

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 13. Max lives with his brother now, but naive Alexander has become unpredictable and complicated. Alexander asked for $150 but won't say why. Chapter 14. Max agrees to give the money, then, frustrated at the secrets, attacks Alexander, but Alexander shows self-restraint. (www.robotskull.podshow.com) (www.petergelman.badongo.com)

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 10. Two years later, at Lafcadio's party, Max's brother Alexander smashes holes in the ceiling. Max's new girlfriend Yvonne is coy, because Meri has come back from Boston to visit. Max, jolted by Meri, worries about a negative pleasure principle. Chapter 11. Max and Meri joke fondly, but Max, disturbed by her and by Alexander, postpones serious discussion. Chapter 12: Max is upset because Yvonne told Alexander that she's moving to Florida before she told him. (www.DangerQuestMysteries.com) (www.petergelman.badongo.com)

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 9. Meri distances herself from Max. Anxious, frantic, Max joins Lafcadio and friends for downtown drinking. He discovers that everyone knows Meri's secret but him. Max fistfights with Tim, then discovers Meri's secret... Afterward, Max confronts a freight train.(www.DangerQuestMysteries.com) (petergelman.badongo.com)

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 7. Max ponders memory and Plutarch's Lives as Meri arrives. Twisting conversation leads to troubled passion. Chapter 8. Arthur left town. Max and Meri lovingly define the dreamword "smudguvank". Max is happy but senses trouble. He fears Meri's secret but won't ask. (www.DangerQuestMysteries.com) (petergelman.badongo.com)

(Please start with installment 1. This is a novel.) Chapter 3: Max calls Meri. He angrily throws the phone across the room. Chapter 4: Max meets friends Lafcadio and Tim and muse madly. Minneapolis catches fire. (www.DangerQuestMysteries.com)

(Start here, the first installment of eleven.) Introduction: Peter Gelman briefly explains the history of this punk rock romantic novel of the 1980s, and the recovery of Hirschberg's narration on long-lost cassette tapes. Chapter 1: Max meets Meri on a bus, follows her. She gives her phone number. Chapter 2: Max gives voice to stirred-up winter feelings with the word YMYRYKY. (www.dangerquestmysteries.com)