Mr. Muo, a middle-aged self-proclaimed psychoanalyst and ardent follower of Freud, is determined to free his university sweetheart Volcano of the Old Moon from prison. While the reader has little to no exposure to Volcano of the Old Moon and no endearing tale is told of her (and therefore we don’t see why she’s so darn special), Mr. Muo nonetheless is inexorable in his quest to win her freedom from the very communist Judge Di.

Three common threads weave their way through the novel. The first is of Freudian psychology and of the significance of virgins and sex. The book ends with Mr. Muo asking a girl if she is a virgin. Muo, at the beginning of the book, is himself a virgin at age forty, but thanks to his mission to satiate Judge Di with a virgin girl in exchange for the release of VOM, he finds the glory of manhood by taking an embalmer as his first. Interestingly enough, the embalmer’s first husband, a homosexual, committed suicide on their wedding night to avoid having sex with her. Second thread: French. Muo certainly loves the French and on occasion quotes them in the novel. The purpose? Not sure. A third thread (which really is like the first but relates moreso to dreams) is psychoanalysis. Muo applies a severe interest to people’s dreams in using it to foretell the future as well as evidence things of the past. He also frequently analyses his own dreams as a method for giving himself personal direction.

The story is the evolution of an intellectual man. Basically, Freud could have told Muo all about sex, but quite frankly he had to do it to get it. His own fulfillments were results of finding a virgin for another man. It’s quite a crooked story at times. Not the best book I’ve read, but certainly not the worst. It is well written and full of some words you probably have never heard of before. Perhaps we could discuss it over lunch at a charcuterie?