MENUDO by Louis Armand ISBN 80-239-6197-7 (fiction). 141pp. Published: 2003 Publisher: Antigen, NY Armand's second novel is set in Mexico, and deals with a series of strange overlapping events, including a sequence of laboratory experiments based on early transcripts of Pavlov’s infamous canine experiments; the experiences of a male prostitute / addict in Mexico City and Vera Cruz; a malaria patient in a sanatorium; an escapee and a catholic priest in a village near Tapachula; an archaeologist at Yaxchillan; a writer / psychoanalyst attempting to resolve the usual father-complex by pursuing a life of "voluntary exile" ... The narrative is "fragmentary,"" and composed in a highly staccato or "telegraphic" style. This is intended to heighten the strain between representation and fact, subjective experience and scientific description, persona and identity. Details multiply, repeat, segue into one another, but do not "add up."" Somewhere, perhaps, a crime has been committed, and the text is an index of witness accounts. The question arises as to what relationship there is between evidence and reality. And what does it mean for something to be "self evident"? Louis Armand is director of the InterCultural Studies programme in the Philosophy Faculty of Charles University, Prague. His books include Solicitations: Essays on Criticism & Culture; Techne: James Joyce, Hypertext & Technology; and Incendiary Devices: Discourses of the Other.