grocery store freakout: “White Noise” (Delillo)

minute-by-minute description of an intense hangover: “Paris Trout” (Pete Dexter)

sex: “Beneath The Underdog” (Charles Mingus)

description of an in-progress aneurysm: “Purple America” (Rick Moody)

understated but arresting violence: (any Pete Dexter)

debauched friendship: “The Shark-Infested Custard” (Charles Willeford)

psychosis: “Blackburn” (Bradley Denton)

modern crime: (any George Pelecanos)

confusion and insecurity posing as crime fiction: (the 70’s and early 80’s books of Charles Willeford)

chaos and paranoia with lots of heart: “A Scanner Darkly” (P. K. Dick)

South without being self-consciously “South”: “Poachers” (Tom Franklin)

coming of age: “Geronimo Rex” (Barry Hannah)

hilarious dialogue by out-of-sync protagonist: “Dog Of The South” or “Norwood” (Charles Portis)

excuse not to be working on what I should be working on: This post