SYNOPSIS

July in the steaming City. The Nation is at War. The slaughter is broadcast live, 24/7. It is impossible to avoid the carnage that ignites a galaxy of screens in homes, offices, bars, sports clubs, restaurants, electronic bill boards over the broad streets of The City.

For the Adman, a former copywriter for The Ad Agency, there’s no way out but “in.” He becomes an “indoor landscaper” or “horticultural technician,” for a company called “Topiary Techniques.” He tends the potted flora of The City’s Corporations in order to “get back to the land.” He keeps the green growing in potted oases strewn about offices, cubicles, lobbies, and executive suites.

The former Adman becomes “Plantman,” and in the spirit of Don Quixote, begins a dizzying journey into the dystopia of The City’s false history and “executive statutes” enacted to control the epidemic of Viral Deviants (VDs) and the Missing Young, who flow into The City from hot June till the first scholarly summons of September.

TOPIARY ia a “modular novel” presented in a series of wry, comedic, cutting, prose pieces -- parodies, parables, vignettes -- part allegory, part satire, and part hero's quest.