"Don't be alarmed! I'm harmless. A harmless crank, and very, very old. Older than I look. You have nothing to fear from me." -- Mort Birnbaum
Seventy-three when the novel opens, 88 when it closes. Mort Birmbaum seems destined to live forever. As he himself says, "Just because no one else ever has doesn't mean it's impossible in principle."
A former AP journalist, a resident of Japan since 1958, burdened with a 23-volume personal diary he fears will fall into the wrong hands but can't bring himself to burn, Mort seethes in restless retirement at the home of his son (or is it his son?) and daughter-in-law in a Hokkaido village called Zenibakko -- as near to nowhere as you can get, though not near enough to suit him. He makes up his mind to approach closer -- and almost succeeds, discovering in the process that the laws of "inner space" are quite different from those of outer space.
Seventy-three when the novel opens, 88 when it closes. Mort Birmbaum seems destined to live forever. As he himself says, "Just because no one else ever has doesn't mean it's impossible in principle."
A former AP journalist, a resident of Japan since 1958, burdened with a 23-volume personal diary he fears will fall into the wrong hands but can't bring himself to burn, Mort seethes in restless retirement at the home of his son (or is it his son?) and daughter-in-law in a Hokkaido village called Zenibakko -- as near to nowhere as you can get, though not near enough to suit him. He makes up his mind to approach closer -- and almost succeeds, discovering in the process that the laws of "inner space" are quite different from those of outer space.
