Ramona

Ramona is 52,500 words in length and starts off with an awkward sentence about how sometimes a terrible thing happens and no one gives a damn. The terrible thing that happens in Ramona is that Art kills the only woman he ever loved, Martha. It was Art’s fate to kill her because a gypsy told him when he was a child. No one cares that Martha has been killed and so Art takes it on himself to care, and the guilt nearly kills him.

The novel draws inspiration from a number of Tom Waits songs, notably ‘Poor Edward’. It is set in California and Mexico mostly. Ramona is actually a small town close to San Diego.

Its themes are guilt and fate.