The Sweep of the Second Hand by Dean Monti

About the book

Malcolm is losing a minute of sleep each night. Or he thinks he is, anyway. As the manager of the Arcadia Filmhaus, a small movie theater that shows nothing but foreign films to small audiences, Malcolm finds himself with too much time to think about the things that are keeping him awake. It doesn't help that it's a hot, sticky summer, his apartment isn't air conditioned, and yellow jackets are living in his wall. His ex-girlfriend, Lena, is about to marry a successful cardiologist. Malcolm believes Lena has his wristwatch and he wants it back. The watch symbolizes for him a sexual encounter that led him to believe that his future was bright and the world was full of possibilities.

As he schemes to get his watch back, Malcolm tries to move past Lena and becomes involved with other women. The one he'd prefer to be with is Anne, a crisis hot line volunteer he's met. But she sees him more as a caller with problems than date material. Malcolm meets a second woman, Darlene, who sings post-punk ballads and dirges in a group called the Circadian Rhythm Section. Though not at all Malcolm's type, Darlene is a good kisser and stays up late, a quality that appeals to him as he deals with his measured insomnia. While taking up with Darlene and grudgingly resigning himself to becoming a creature of the night, Malcolm still tries to woo Anne. He plans a small film festival at Arcadia to impress her. He intends to screen Wild Strawberries, a film Anne is fond of, and enlists the services of a guest speaker, Soren Sonderby, an actor who claims to have worked with Ingmar Bergman in the 1950's.

Meanwhile, Malcolm schemes to get his wristwatch back. After unsuccessfully confronting Lena directly, he connives to have Darlene sing at Lena's wedding so that he can secretly attend the event. In the nuptial disaster that follows, Malcolm attempts, again in vain, to regain his wristwatch. As he's being thrown out of the church he thinks he spies the watch on the groom's wrist and wrests its free. But it's the wrong watch, and Malcolm lets a train run over it. Malcolm's film festival is equally disastrous. Anne doesn't show up. Soren Sonderby turns out to be a dubiously credible, drunken old geezer. He says little to the audience, exhibits his performing skills by showing how to act like one with the plague, and later, dies for real, before the second night of the film festival. Conceding the defeat of his life, Malcolm has a final walk on the wild side with Darlene and a showdown with the yellowjackets in his wall. The two events will provoke eviction from his landlady.

Having seemingly reached rock bottom, Malcolm screens Wild Strawberries without an audience on the second night of the film festival. Anne shows up. A delightfully surprised Malcolm joins her and they watch the film in the empty theater. Malcolm begins to realize that the immediate crisis of his life may be behind him. He's purged his obsession with Lena and the wristwatch. He's exhausted his attempts to be a night owl with Darlene. The hot summer is fading, the yellowjackets are out of his wall, and although he faces eviction, it can only be to a better place.

As Malcolm watches the old man in Wild Strawberries, he's reminded that it's never to late to make peace with one's past and present. With Anne by his side, he watches as the old man falls into blissful sleep, and one feels hopeful that Malcolm's own sleep problems will begin to wane. He relaxes for the first time in a long time and enjoys the film.

About the author

Dean Monti started writing at age two, but nothing really legible until age five. Since that time there is very little he hasn't written. He is the author of several plays and has had his works staged in Norfolk, Va, and Chicago. He has penned many short stories and has been published in Prairie Light Review and ELF:The Eclectic Literary Forum. As a journalist, he's been a feature writer for the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and interviewed Colin Powell in 1998. That same year he wrote and performed a personal essay for National Public Radio in Chicago. The Sweep of the Second Hand will be published by Academy Chicago Publishers, Fall, 2000. He recently completed a children's book and is working on his second novel.