Caliban’s Filibuster (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)

At a glance:

Characters Discussed

Cal, a frustrated novelist working as a hack writer. He has contracted to script a television movie titledGeisha from Venus, due to begin production in Japan. At an all-time personal low, he undergoes a tortuous psychological exercise in which he creates a nonstop drama in his head employing his traveling companions as actors in a bizarre trio of scenarios. His “filibuster” is an attempt to repress the actual events of his flight from California to Japan and to vent his growing despair over the direction in which his career is moving. He periodically threatens to quit his job but never carries through on the impulse.

Sammy Zuess, a film producer and Cal’s employer. He is self-indulgent, overweight, arrogant, and an acquirer of great material wealth. He speaks in a strange accent and appears in Cal’s filibuster as a merciless godlike figure.

Murray McAndrew, an actor starring in Zuess’s film. Although doomed to hopeless mediocrity, he is vain and self-centered. He appears in various roles in Cal’s musings.

P. D. Malchios,

Mephos,

Tophel,

Kopfhalstam,

Mc Call,

Dr. Greenfell,

Kop,

Kol,

Sadako,

Yakamoto, and

Kamiko, productions of Cal’s imagination who are introduced and disappear with little explanation or description. These minor characters serve to facilitate the psychological ramblings of a frustrated man, which substitute in the novel for any traditional sense of plot.

Bibliography

Kirkus Reviews. Review. XXXIX (February 15, 1971), p. 199.

Library Journal. Review. XCVI (April 15, 1971), p. 1389.

National Observer. Review. X (May 17, 1971), p. 19.

The New York Times Book Review. Review. LXIV (June 20, 1971), p. 5.

Publishers Weekly. Review. CXCIX (March 8, 1971), p. 63.