Jennifer Denrow's California, a tragicomic collection arranged in three “acts,” explores the obsessive nature of humanity while calling in to question the creation of our realities: “You put your thumb in front of your eye. / This is the world now,” writes Denrow in the second act. In the third act, a section comprised of letters between the late ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (father of author Candice Bergen) and his dummy Charlie, Denrow delves deeper into this question of created reality.
