This copy has been SIGNED by Barry Gifford on the title page! Barry Gifford's first full-length novel is an unusual, captivating exploration into the life of a single man. Written in the form used by the classic Japanese writer Sei Shonagon in her "Pillow Book" - short, essayistic stories or tales woven around a central moral - this landscape is the self-portrait of a man who, often swept away by passion in his youth, approaches his later years with increasing distance and an almost Zen-like tranquility.