Capital Castles

Capital Castles finally concludes the journey initiated in Cardboard Castles and continued in Cloud Castles. As in the previous two novels, Capital Castles takes Duncan Katz on yet another quest for entertainment and edification as he journeys from the United States to Holland to Paris and back to the United States where the journey began. New and old characters appear: the ubiquitous Thanatos; Samuel Beckett; baseball Hall of Famer, Richie Ashburn; the Statue of Liberty; Jefferson's slave and concubine, Sally Hemings and her brother, true author of the Declaration of Independence, Vasiariah Hemings; the blind Chicago bus driver, T.R. Esias; the phlegmatic, Grand Interpreter; and, of course, Hadara Halevi, Duncan's wife.

In Capital Castles, Axelrod spares no ironic expense on the United States and the history of its social, economic and political malfeasance. From the opening acknowledgment to the gracious solicitations to the multi-international corporations for sponsoring the novel to the playing of the Star Spangled Banner to sanctify the novel to Duncan's intimate meeting with the Statue of Liberty to the true and authentic account of the creation of the Declaration of Independence, there's more than a sardonic glimmer of Twain-like sanctity to the novel