Kirn, Walter

When Walter, a Bible-carrying member of a fanatical protest group called the Conscience Squad, meets Kim whose twenty-three, pregnant, and with no money, outside an abortion clinic, Walter has to grapple with his feelings for Kim and his religious beliefs.

A thirty-five-year-old corporate consultant vows to set himself free by quitting his job once he reaches the one-million point in his accumulation of frequent-flier miles.

Justin Cobb has never outgrown his childhood habit of sucking his thumb, until he undergoes a session of hypnosis, but even though his thumbsucking is cured, he finds himself fighting an oral fixation that leads him into many strange situations.

The author describes his quest for intellectual fulfillment within the American educational system, and discusses his childhood in rural Minnesota through his time at Princeton University.