Ettore Gnocchi, the famed postmodern theorist, has been murdered at his own dinner party. To find out who killed Gnocchi, the detective Solomon Hunter must first explore postmodernism itself. What is it? Who are Baudrillard, Foucault, and Habermas, and what do they think? Why does any of this matter, anyway?

chapter 1 Acknowledgements chapter 2 Author's Note chapter 3 Personae chapter 4 1. When the lights went on again... chapter 5 2. "My God—What happened?" chapter 6 3. Shoshana TelAviv was the first person... chapter 7 4. Alain Fess couldn't sit still for a second. chapter 8 5. "How can I help you?" asked Slavomir Propp. chapter 9 6. Myra Prail looked terrible. chapter 10 7. If Basil Constant was gay... chapter 11 8. The "porcelain doll," Miyako Fuji... chapter 12 9. After Miyako Fuji left... chapter 13 10. Hunter pulled out a number of letters... chapter 14 11. The second letter Ettore sent was to Jean Baudrillard... chapter 15 12. The third letter was to Jurgen Habermas. chapter 16 13. The fourth letter was to Fredric Jameson. chapter 17 14. "What a funny guy this Gnocchi was..." chapter 18 15. Hunter slipped the video out of its box... chapter 19 16. Shoshana TelAviv couldn't fall asleep... chapter 20 17. As was his custom, Alain Fess wrote in his journal... chapter 21 18. When she got home, Myra Prail made an emergency call... chapter 22 19. Miyako Fuji poured herself a beer... chapter 23 20. Slavomir Propp was bored. chapter 24 21. "Who was responsible for the death of Ettore Gnocchi?" chapter 25 22. The next day Basil Constant started a new novel... chapter 26 Selected Bibliography chapter 27 Index chapter 28 About the Author