Arthur Asa Berger. Postmortem for a Postmodernist (1997) 176 pp. [tpo]
A mystery novel disguised as a textbook on postmodernism … or vice versa. While hosting a dinner party at his Pacific Heights home, UC Berkeley professor Ettore Gnocchi is murdered. After a brief power failure, the dinner guests discover that Gnocchi has been shot, stabbed, impaled with a feathered dart, and poisoned. Detective Solomon Hunter of the San Francisco Police Department is summoned to the house to investigate. During the course of questioning the guests—all of whom had been invited to participate in planning an upcoming conference on postmodernism—Hunter discovers that the key to the mystery lies in understanding postmodernism itself. Complete with extensive quotes from postmodernist texts, index, extensive bibliography, and humorous illustrations.
Hubin