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At its most basic level, *** is a detective story. Stu Pott, the naive and sentimental hero, ends up (thanks to the collusion of a jealous wife, a rapacious mistress and a horde of snakily ambitious hangers-on) unjustly accused of the murder of his master, towering captain of industry and maker of ***. But the book reveals itself to be much more than a detective story, and much more than a sly critique of capitalist society - although it is those things as well. This novel is "after far bigger game than the identity of some culprit," as Brodsky says. A triumph of post-modern literature, *** is both baroque and machine-like in its precise use of language, an intricate dissection of the nature and process of the story, and storytelling, itself. By turns witty, despairing, and profound in a way no other living writer can match - "one of the most important writers working today" (Library Journal) - Michael Brodsky, with an ever-expanding body of work, is justly referred to as shouldering fully in his turn the burden of fearless exploration assumed by Kafka, by Joyce, and by Beckett. A critique of the capitalist society. The protagonist is Stu Pott, a successful captain of industry, a man with a jealous wife, a rapacious mistress and a horde of flunkies. The novel tells what happens to him when he is unjustly accused of the murder of his boss. By the author of Three Goat Songs Michael Brodsky. The Title Consists Solely Of Three Asterisk Signs.