Abstract
In a needy American landscape where consumerism runs rampant and marketing works like dark magic on the minds and souls of nearly everyone, Dean Sardelle reluctantly seeks a purpose. Facing the collapse of his family business beneath the weight of medical bills and corporate power that undermines generations of pet store ownership, the video-game-obsessed Dean is an unlikely source of salvation. As the family looks towards his older sister Sheila to finish college and save them all, Dean is trapped somewhere between desperation and apathy as he jealously wonders why can’t care enough to try. Enter Midas Murphy. A stooped and miraculous enigma, the strange old man appears one day and sets Dean on a commercial and spiritual journey that will change his life forever. A Fish Story is a novel that examines contemporary American life as experienced by a post-adolescent Caucasian male upon whom the forces of history, capitalism, commercialism, gender, race, religion and family are at work.