BIRNBAUM: A Novel of Inner Space, by Michael Hoffman. Printed Matter Press, 2008, 321 pp., ¥2,000 (paper)

In writing about the process involved in the creation of this novel, Michael Hoffman observed that "Often as I wrote, I had no idea where this was going." This sounds a little like the literary process known in Japanese as zuihitsu (follow the brush), where inspiration and instinct lead, with the writer tagging on to see what happens next. The book, however, gives the impression of being remarkably well structured. Time itself, the "inner space" of the title, may be random, but Hoffman bends it to his purpose.

Besides the main character, Mort, inside whose cranium we sit for much of the novel, the author has assembled an interesting cast of characters: a Japanese daughter-in-law with a disturbing past, a disgraced private investigator, a fussy aunt who turns out to be a doctor, a prize-winning, fiction-writing granddaughter who works in a convenience store. And there is an interesting twist, or recoil, when we learn the truth about Mort's deceased wife. In examining his cast of characters, Hoffman reveals how difficult it is for these people to coexist, how people's outer radiance masks their inner torment.

Admirable as his previous works of fiction have been, I found myself picking them up in an agitated mental state, cognitive engines primed for some heady tractates. Though some of the chapters of "Birnbaum" have portentous titles like "God's Dream" and "The Great Matter of Life and Death," this work, Hoffman's most accessible to date, is more narrative- based and character-propelled than his other works of fiction.