title: The List: A Love Story in 781 Chapters
author:  Aneva Stout 
description: Stout's debut novel is a clever hybrid of meta-fiction and gift book: this slim, illustrated hardcover is a love story composed entirely of second-person affirmation-style list entries, none more than two or three dozen words. The result offers all the guilty pleasures of chick litthe snarky humor of a good glossy magazine and the soothing cadences of a girl-loses-boy-girl-finds-boy-girl-dumps-boy plotwith a precise breakdown of the newest behemoth genre which, at its best, refines the form to poetic abstraction without sacrificing readability: "248. You'll wonder how he keeps his bathroom tile so sparkling. 249. He'll say, 'Are you okay?' 250. You'll say, 'Don't stop!' " It can grate when its heroine (you) hews too close to clich, but Stout generally avoids easy laughs at her character's/audience's expense. Though brief, the book has enough drama, emotional resonance and sharp throw-away lines ("333. You'll look in his closet. 334. You'll find something you wish you hadn't. <i>a. A closet that's neater than your living room. b. Twister. c. A videotape labeled: Aruba.</i>") to make it worth revisiting, either in part or whole. Simultaneously, the "high art" fiction conceit reinvigorates the "low-art" gift-book genre it appropriatesnot a major achievement ( la <i>The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay</i> or Lorrie Moore's <i>Self-Help</i>), but no small feat either. <i>(Apr.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: # Red Rain
  
  ### Part One
  
  ##  David Beers
  
  
  ### Contents
  
  [ A Special Offer ](text00002.html#a-special-offer)
  
  [ A Quote ](text00004.html#a-quote)
  
  1. [ Present Day ](text00005.html#chapter-001)
  
  2. [ A Portrait of a Young Man ](text00006.html#chapter-002)
  
  3. [ Present Day ](text00007.html#chapter-003)
  
  4. [ A Portrait of a Young Man ](text00008.html#chapter-004)
  
  5. [ Present Day ](text00009.html#chapter-005)
  
  6. [ A Portrait of a Young Man ](text00010.html#chapter-006)
  
  7. [ Present Day ](text00011.html#chapter-007)
  
  8. [ Present Day ](text00012.html#chapter-008)
  
  9. [ A Portrait of a Young Man ](text00013.html#chapter-009)
  
  10. [ Present Day ](text00014.html#chapter-010)
  
  11. [ Present Day ](text00015.html#chapter-011)
  
  12. [ A Portrait of a Young Man ](text00016.html#chapter-012)
  
  13. [ Present Day ](text00017.html#chapter-013)
  
  14. [ A Portrait of a Young Man ](text00018.html#chapter-014)
  
  15. [ Present Day ](text00019.html#chapter-015)
  
  16. [ Present Day ](text00020.html#chapter