A View of the White Elephant: A Novel

By Colum Driscoll

Bernard Walters is a middle-aged, middle-class man preparing himself for a midlife crisis. His teenage daughter, Bella, has been having trouble getting along with boys. His own life bears little or no apparent meaning, so he sets out on a quest to find a decent boyfriend for Bella. In his search, he finds himself also searching for whatever meaning might be inherent in his own life. "A View of the White Elephant" is a humorous novel detailing some of the ridiculous extents to which Bernard Walters (and perhaps all humans) will go in the search for meaning in life. Bernard finds significance in the everyday objects and actions that surround him, perhaps most especially in the accidental death of a boy whom he was going to ask home to supper. Bernard becomes obsessed with finding the car that hit this unfortunate boy, but instead of turning to the DMV or the police, he turns to books-Homer, Calvino, Herodotus (in whom he finds a strange and unique affinity)-hoping to find some answers hidden in the thousands of words that he reads. The regular narration of the story is interrupted a number of times by the disconnected, agonized thoughts of its protagonist as he attempts to understand the purpose of human suffering, which is, in a playful way, a central theme of the book. Other sufferers are glimpsed in some short, fragmented scenes (probably somewhere inside of Bernard's tortured imagination): sufferers like Leonidas, Moses and Elijah-who carry on an impossible conversation with each other.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1984088459
• ISBN13: 9781984088451
• Release Date: November 2018
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"