Very loosely based on The Odyssey, this wildly inventive, skillfully crafted novel follows the eyebrow-raising exploits of one woman's much-maligned, ill-fated suitors. While the Odysseus character (herein named Payne) gallivants around, waging war and otherwise taking his time on the voyage home, the Penelope character (now Penny) finds herself surrounded by a motley crew of ne'er-dowells eager for nothing but her attention. She, however, cannot be bothered with anything but her memories of Payne. That is, until the mysterious arrival of a man whose origins no one on the scene can quite divine. When Penny starts taking a shine to him, the tenuous calm on the home front quickly starts to unravel. Full of ideas but with never a dull moment, The Suitors heralds the debut of an exciting new literary voice.

"A bearded man in a badly soiled suit known only The Stranger wanders the fringes of a dying metropolis, looking for a way to 'get back on top.' Thwarted and rejected at every turn--even by the author of this novel, whom he visits repeatedly in unsuccessful attempts to determine the outcome of his own narrative--his impotence and rage drive him to acts of seemingly senseless violence. He encounters various characters on his journey: three skinheads who beat him senseless, a pack of sadistic boys who torture him, a deaf-mute woman who tries to heal him, and a deranged man who identifies him as The One. A sidewalk preacher and a crew of lost souls attempt to follow his trail, and an innocent boy ignites a fire that threatens to consume them all."--P. [4] of cover.