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A Frolic of His Own (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

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This novel is set thematically by the opening line, “Justice?—You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.” Justice is conceptual and as an abstract ideal can be perfect, while law is about language and is limited, ambiguous, bound by context. The ideal is often invoked, while the practical application is used and abused by the greedy and self-important. The novel's title itself is a legal term, referring to a contracted worker who does something not specified in his contract and in doing so injures himself: The example used is of someone blinding himself by...

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