Introduction [excerpt] My thesis constitutes part one of a novel set in New Jersey in the year 2008. It is a work of literary realism, yet the narrator's overactive imagination adds an element of absurdist comedy and dream logic. The story is narrated by Amelia, an abrasive woman in her sixties suffering from substance abuse brought on by the loss of both her son and husband. When a representative of the bank that controls the mortgage to her house shows up on her doorstep one morning to inform her that...