"Valet"

J.P. Lacrampe received his MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary’s College. His short fiction has been published by Glimmer Train, McSweeney's, Instant City, and in Howl: A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit. He is a professor at Santa Clara University & SJSU, where he teaches courses in composition, fiction, and screenwriting.

Lacrampe applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Valet, and reported the following:

Page 69 in Valet drops the reader into the middle of a comedy of errors involving three androids of varying sophistication who are clumsily exchanging valuable information. It includes, of course, the narrator Cy, as well as the principal human character Grayson.

I'm not sure how well the Page 69 Test works for this book. A reader would definitely get a sense of the world (near-future, robots abound, etc.), as well as some of the satire. Most notably how -- much like humans -- robots judge themselves against others, even to the point of talking down the capabilities of those they believe are beneath them. So in those respects, the test works! But I don't think a reader would be able to gather much of the story from this single page (or any one page).

I get the logic of the test! It puts you far enough into the book -- the end of Act 1 or the beginning of Act 2, depending on the length of the story -- where many of the most important elements are set. Right into the middle of the action!

Visit J.P. Lacrampe's website.

--Marshal Zeringue