Charles Sloat

The Hope Chest Charles Sloat

The humorous novel "The Hope Chest - By Arthur Meds," is the draft of a fictional book by a fictional author. The finished novel is the story of a man, and the events in his life that lead him to enter a pub tucked away down an alley. This draft isn't as straightforward. According to the preface written by the fictitious Michael Wallace Ellinglsy, the original manuscript for the best-selling novel "The Hope Chest" was found in a diaper bag in Chicago. That draft contained an early version of the story along with marginal notes and parenthetical comments. This book is an experiment where the reader follows along as a novel unfolds and its author struggles to tell a story. Scenes are abandoned. Characters are introduced and forgotten. Three men are stranded in a boat where they find a kazoo and argue the existence of God. At its core, it is the story of a person struggling through adversity -- and failing. The story will forever serve as a reminder that 'You Can't Parallel Park a Bus.'