Ex-young man, ex-athlete, ex-smoker, ex-dreamer, ex-idealist, ex-romantic, neo-cynical, neo-disillusioned, future disappointed. As for writing, well, for now Brubaker mostly read a lot and wrote his name to sign checks, promissory notes, filled out applications for public and/or private competitions that promised steady employment. Then he found the one at the bank (ah, his mother how happy she was) and no longer ran away to New Zealand as he had threatened to do. Then he met a woman he fell in love with, who in turn married him and gave him a little girl who made his heart melt. So now here he is, trying to pass off his novelettes as yet another misunderstood masterpiece of this decadent modern literature.