"It was a hot, humid, August morning, three hours before dawn. The tiny house cowering in the corner of the gravel parking lot was dominated by a flashing neon sign in the shape of a huge eye blinking a message to the passing world that 'Hot Food' was available at all hours. In truth the eye was doomed to blink its message of dubious culinary cheer."

"Elroy was a good kid... sensitive and well balanced. Everything a mother would order if scientific progress offered 'Dial-a-Kid'... in preference to traditional methods of procreation. If a poll was taken at Covington High in St Tammany Parish... Elroy would undoubtedly have been voted 'graduate most likely to be average during the course of his life'. A comforting title for those not inclined to scale the dizzy heights of corporate ladders... and those not obsessed with achieving immortality in other fields of human endeavor. In short, a youth who could cope with the vicissitudes of life with good humor."