Negativeland — Doug Nufer

In this rueful tale, written under a simple but pervasive formal constraint, Olympic gold medal winner Ken Honochick and his girlfriend take a cross-country road trip to revisit his brief moment of triumph and his subsequent long haul on the promotions circuit. The result is a smart, flirtatious tour-de-force that's as funny as it is inventive. Under all the comic gusto and technical virtuosity, however, there's also some penetrating thought on our country's obsession with private foibles and public image, individual achievement and the pressure to cash in on it.