Zimmerman’s ‘Illusions of Memory’ series is a  sprawling mix of memoir, diary, Bildungsroman, travelogue and short story collection that he has been piecing together over the past several years. U.S. post-war conservatism, the radical 60s and 70s, the restoration of the 80s and changes further on are all portrayed against the backdrop of three marriages and moves from east to west, from Mexican borderlands toward Nicaragua and beyond—to Europe, Minnesota, Chicago, and Puerto Rico. The quotidian and world-historical come together in ways that recall Rousseau’s  Confessions, but with a jazzier, more dissonant vibe. I know of nothing like it in contemporary American fiction.

John Beverley, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, U.  of Pittsburgh, author of Against Literature and Subalternity and Representation.

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