Lapham Rising

Lapham Rising by Roger Rosenblatt
Just in case you're not going to catch the Lehrer Newshour tonight, I wanted to highlight this featured title by a Newshour contributor. It's about an island-dwelling recluse who launches countermeasures against his boorish, McMansion-building neighbor. In order to save civilization as we know it, March decides to launch a fireball from his homebuilt catapult onto the monstrosity. The projectile is defeated, however, by a frigid gust from Lapham's state-of-the-art air conditioner, which blasts the fiery mass back onto March's island, destroying his home and property. Sounds entertaining to me.