Before long he's involved with a long-pregnant librarian named Henry, and with a series of identical Indians named Bob, and he's breaking into a veterinary hospital to rescue his dog from euthanasia, and his Hank Williams record has been stolen, possibly by one of the Alexandrians (Library version) who apparently try to rescue deleted artwork. The combined effects of all these lead him to a criminal act - when he confiscates a Hank Williams record he decides to try to find a record player on which to listen to it - just once - before turning it in. Hank's dog is dying, and his mother is dead, and his father, who named him for the legendary country singer Hank Williams, left long ago. Shapiro and his fellow 'pickup artists' travel to people's homes who are reported to own copies of deleted videos, records, and books, and confiscated the works (while compensating the owners). from the past, and each month, a randomly selected set of authors, musicians, movies, painters and so on is 'deleted', and all their works are supposed to be destroyed. It has been determined that contemporary artists are unfairly at a disadvantage in 'competition' with the weight of all the works of literature, painting, acting, etc.

The title character is Hank Shapiro, who works for the government confiscating works of art which have been 'deleted'. At the opening it seems almost a straightforward commentary by SFnal means on a theme reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451 (though at core very different), but by the end it has become a road novel through a very strange next century America. Terry Bisson's new novel, The Pickup Artist, is an interesting, odd, novel that reminded me strongly of Jonathan Lethem, particularly, for some reason, Amnesia Moon.

The Pickup Artist by Terry Bisson