El Malabarista, pianist and juggler for a troupe of sexual performance artists, is found dead in the dusty wilderness, his fingers crushed. Beginning like a murder mystery, The Blond Box then defies all the usual expectations of a murder mystery plot, by juxtaposing "real" events in two different decades with a draft version of a hack sci-fi novella. This mixed narrative serves as a meta-fictional commentary on the efforts of a retired sex-theater artist, a hairstylist/pulp writer, a doctoral student, and a host of other characters to, not only solve the murder, but uncover its motivation, which seems to be linked to El Malabarista's knowledge of the whereabouts of a certain boxed treasure. By turns lyrical and scatological, puerile and cerebral, The Blond Box is at once a daring formal experiment and a good yarn.

Toby Olson, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel Seaview (New Directions, 1982), has published eight works of fiction. He lives with his wife, Miriam, in Philadelphia, where he recently retired from Temple University, and in North Truro on Cape Cod. Olson has most recently been collaborating with composer Paul Epstein on chamber operas. He has published fiction, essays, and reviews in more than 200 national magazines and newspapers. His essay on Marcel Duchamp appeared in FICTION INTERNATIONAL in 1999.