Updated] See now also Stephen Saperstein Frug's more thorough list of errata at his Attempts weblog. The 31st chapter (the second "V"-chapter) again no longer has any words beginning with the letters W, X, Y, or Z, for example. In the north it is separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, in the northeast, is separated from Asia by the Suez Canal and farther by the Red Sea.

This is ironic, given that the frame within which the story must operate is so rigorous at the beginning; as the rigor progressively lessens, so the story loosens up and becomes more coherent. And most importantly, are the two appearances of the forbidden word "or" in the first H chapter a blunder or a deeper clue, and just part of the game? Development was assisted by native speakers of African languages and led by Diedrich Hermann Westermann, who served as director of the organization from 1926 to 1939.If I were to argue in favor of said approach, I'd say that sometimes new rhythms and patterns and structures can emerge, and isn't that point of exploring fiction in the first place? These sorts of limitations are played with adroitly by Abish, and add to the overall humor of the work. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. It's hard to judge a book this experimental: the first chapter contains only words beginning with A ("Ages ago an archaeologist. Here's why: The first chapter, "A," only contains words that begin with the letter "a"; the second chapter, "B," only contains words beginning with either the letters "a" or "b"; and so on and so forth goes the rest of the novel, chapters C, D, E, F, G and on to chapter "Z".

The structure, in fact, becomes, in whole or in part, the message being communicated, along with the story, and gives the novel a certain texture and depth, a sort of funky, surreal feel like a 3D drawing by Escher, that more conventionally styled novels can only dream of invoking.The story reaches maximum freedom at the midpoint of the book; then, in strict accordance with the overall constraint, the frame begins to become more rigorous again. In the first chapter, every word must begin with A (“Ages ago, Alex, Allen, and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex’s admonition, against Allen’s angry assertion: another African amusement. Beyond its linguistic experimentation, the first line of the novel hints at themes that may be explored in the story.