The Search for the Dice Man

Book excerpt: The Dice Man's son must roll the dice himself as his neat and orderly world begins to crumble. Larry Rhinehart is the son of the renegade psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart, who introduced the world to dice-living and dice therapy, where decisions are made not by the self but by the roll of a die. Since his father deserted him when he was still a child, Larry has bitterly rejected everything his father stood for. He has embraced order and control. Now a wealthy Wall Street analyst, he is about to marry the boss's daughter, and become a good deal wealthier. Then Homeland Security shows up in Larry’s office searching for his father, who is suspected of being behind acts of cyber warfare against government, banking and Wall Street interests. Larry's carefully organized world begins to crumble. Forced to try find his father before the government can, his search is made in the company of Kim, a sexy admirer of Luke’s. His quest takes him to Lukedom, a Dice Commune where everyone changes roles every day—to Larry’s own dicing, which leads to love, a broken engagement, rigging the stock market—and total chaos. Larry’s search is by turns funny, moving, and erotic. By the time he finally confronts his father he has been profoundly and hilariously changed and his previously successful, conservative life has been turned on its head.