'Here's the truth, simply stated ... bookstores are suffering from a serious crisis of falling sales.' So begins the imaginary interview that comprises this novel. Professor Y, the interviewing academic, asks questions that allow C�line, a character in his own book, the chance to rail against convention and defend his idiosyncratic methods. In the course of their outrageous interplay, C�line comes closer to defining and justifying his poetics than in any of his other novels. But this is more than just an interview. As the book moves forward, Professor Y reveals his real identity and the characters travel through the streets of Paris toward a bizarre climax that parodies the author, the critic, and, most of all, the establishment.