Constitutionals

Taking some convalescent wanders around Reading, the narrator of The Constitutionals, a figure haunted by being called Crusoe in childhood, also ‘sets out to avert global catastrophe, hoping to trigger the end of neoliberalism by going for a walk.’ What does he discover about the place in which he’s settled with his wife, who he will call Friday, and their ocean-haunted daughter?

Published on the tercentenary of Robinson Crusoe’s appearance, our author answers such questions by paying sustained tribute to the town, and the founding ‘autobiography’ by which it has—as have so many works alluded to here—been indelibly marked.