Beneath its medley of adventure and satire, The Most Amazing Thing tells the story of a typical American man's search for empowerment and validation, in a world alive with sharply conflicting moral messages. Can Desmond Ruck find dignity in macho power, in romantic love, in philanthropy, in learning how to write or simply in the power and fame of being the world's richest man? In the end none of these social roles proves substantial enough for Ruck, who finds a more profound confirmation of character in the curious thought that "everything has a story."

"A story!" In a more abstract sense, The Most Amazing Thing, with its dizzying multiple plots and its grab-bag of narrative gimmicks, is about the very idea of a story—the nature of narrative as a cultural institution and a psychological revelation. Again and again Ruck's clichéd language can't express the raw intensity of what's happening to him, but his very interpretive failures make his experiences seem realer. And these experiences run the full gamut of traditional narrative material, as well as sweeping across the abundant excesses and phobias of turn-of-the-century American society

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updated June 8, 2001.