Isolarion Book

Acknowledgements     xi
Introduction     xiii
First Partition
Embarkation     3
Purification     8
Of Music and Cannibalism     11
Doing My Part     19
The Melancholy Pilgrim     21
Bread and Circuses     30
Boucherie Chatar     37
Designated Desire-Lines: Planning a New Road     40
Further Purification of the Pilgrim     48
Enrobed     55
Of Love and Jewels     60
Behind the Blue Door (Inside the Private Shop)     66
From the Literal to the Allegorical and Back     72
Wittgenstein's Lion and a Cappuccino Sea     78
Virtual Streets and Gateways: The Plans Revisited     84
Cosmonauts and Coleslaw     93
St. Edmund's Well and a Faded Warning     97
Second Partition
Making Do and Getting By     105
Egyptian Vagabonds, Afternoon Men, and the Malus Genius of Our Nation     113
Losing the Key     118
Bed-Sits and Birardari     122
What They Think You Can Bear: Football, Religion, and Nightmares on the Cowley Road     129
Between Two Fires: Pulling the Dragon's Teeth     133
Melancholy, an AmericanPhotographer, and the Irish Writer     141
Cowley Road Calling     143
Just Less Lucky     145
Dreadlocks and Rim-Shots: Reggae at the Zodiac     152
Of Lepers, Lunatics, and Layabouts     158
Dancing Sand and Zum-Zum Water     171
Junior Jihad     176
Of Books and Bitumen     177
Carnival     179
Returning to the Source     186
Third Partition
A Journey in the Hinterland     197
Into the Furnace     200
Blessings and Tribulation     205
A Graveyard Reborn     215
Finding a Clue     220
Of Bats and Mutton Curry     223
Margaret's Story     227
A Hidden Pool     234
The Liquid Kingdom     245
The Gateways Close     248
Of Robots, Wild Rhubarb, and the New Oxford Way     252
Things Fall Apart: An Ending of Sorts     269