Albertine's Overcoat — Eric Kraft

Peter Leroy is in danger of becoming an arrogant, insufferable little egoist. Then something happens that saves him. He falls in love with Albertine Gaudet. That is the end of egoism-and the start of one of literature's great romances. Peter doesn't merely tell the story of his wooing and winning Albertine. He interweaves that story with an account of the troubles that beset him during the writing of the story. Among the obstacles are self-doubt, procrastination, and the demanding clients for his memoir-ghost-writing service Memoirs While You Wait-but that's not all. He begins getting telephone calls intended for a local business, Peerless Television Service and Repair. These oddly compelling calls lure him out of the isolation of his writing room and into the lives of the callers. The result is a poignant, thoughtful meditation on the frustrations of everyday life, the transitory nature of fame and success, persistence, loyalty, the vanity of human wishes, luck, realism, and romance.