Basic Forms

Overview

"The three shots rang out very clearly in Edward Zupan's head as he crossed Times Square..." So begins this extraordinary novel by the author of The Other Shore and Death, which sets out to explore the mind of a protagonist who may or may not commit a mass shooting. While the act is viewed through the prism of possibility, utilizing parallel sets of characters, images and motifs, and in technique owes something to both Alain Robbe-Grillet and the music of Philip Glass, the novel was essentially inspired by Charles Whitman, the Texas sniper of the 1960s, and represents an attempt to elucidate the existential meaning of such an act at its deepest level.

Author Biography

Fred Skolnik was born in New York City and has lived in Israel since 1963. He is the author of The Other Shore, Death, and Americans and Other Stories. Skolnik is also the editor in chief of the 22-volume second edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, winner of the 2007 Dartmouth Medal. Under his Fred Russell pen name, Skolnik also published Rafi's World, and The Links in the Chain.