A novel by R.M. Dolin
The Book of Darwin – TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Refuge In Waiting – Darwin arrives in Chicago to stay with his younger brother Vincent and his wife Ilene until their baby is born. Darwin won’t reveal the real reason he’s there but instead, wagers Vincent on who wins baseball’s home run batting title. If Vincent wins, Darwin must date Ilene’s sister, Gwen until she decides it’s over and if Darwin wins, he gets to name Vincent’s son. Darwin tries writing Becky a letter but doesn’t find a way to put into words what he feels in his heart, he struggles to accept she really doesn’t love him anymore. – 4,660 words and three scenes: taxi from O’Hare, Vincent and Ilene’s apartment, and Darwin’s bedroom.
Chapter 2: Murphy’s Northshore Bar – Darwin and Vincent catch up while watching a Cub’s game at Murphy’s Northshore Bar. Darwin talks about his broken relationship with Becky and his uncertainty with what he should do with his life. He’s about to dive into what happened at Berkeley when Vincent has to leave. Darwin remains at the bar and reconnects with Lenny, a high school buddy from back at Saint Stanislaw’s School for Wayward Boys. – 4,560 words and one scene: Murphy’s bar.
Chapter 3: Shadows About to Collide – Darwin recounts the events leading up to his tragedy with details about his broken relationship with Becky sprinkled in. He describes the Shadow Dancers; a small cohort of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs concerned about technology’s role in world and their responsibilities to society. Darwin’s affiliation with the Shadow Dancers strains his relationship with Becky to the point she issues an ultimatum. Darwin hosts an investors forum at Berkeley where he gets a huge offer to sell his startup. It’s not until after the deal’s done, he realizes deceived by an investor fronting for the Chinese military. Realizing the horror what he’s done spirals Darwin into dystopian despair. – 4,900 words and two scenes: Vincent’s living room and the Berkeley Faculty Club.
Chapter 4: Walden Pond – Kismet is meeting the person you most need when you most need them. In shock after what happened at the Berkeley Faculty Club, Darwin wanders Telegraph Avenue winding up in a used bookstore where a sage shopkeeper guides him to the segue of what will become his self-sustaining life. – 4,362 words and six scenes: Vincent’s Living Room, Telegraph Avenue, Rasputin’s Record Shop, Sidewalk Café, and the Bookstore.
Chapter 5: A Bettors Bond – Having won their bet, Darwin names Vincent’s son and on the day of Issac’s baptism, he tells Vincent about the Harley he won in a bet with Lenny and his intention to ride it to New Mexico to look at a remote property his realtor found; an entire wilderness mountain just below the Colorado border. Vincent is convinced Darwin’s crisis has caused him to completely lose his mind. – 4,214 words and one scene: Vincent’s Living Room.
Chapter 6: Segue To A Life – Darwin leaves Chicago in late October riding his Harley to New Mexico along Route 66. He arrives in a small Oklahoma town after a hard day on the road spent over-thinking his life and the decisions that have brought him to take this road-trip to potentially buy an entire mountain in a place he’s never been. While drinking bourbon in a dive bar, he questions the role fate has in outcomes. – 4,135 words and two scenes: Route 66 and a dive bar in Oklahoma.
Chapter 7: Ace In The Hole – Darwin arrives in Taos ready to buy Marquez Mountain, but after inspecting the dilapidated hacienda he decides to pass. Victor, whose been assigned to show Darwin the property, takes him up to the high mountain meadow to seal the deal. – 4,520 words and four scenes: Addison’s office, a Taos café , the Marquez Mountain hacienda, and the high mountain meadow.
Chapter 8: Building Toward a Rebuilding – While waiting to close on the Marquez Mountain property, Darwin gets busy acquiring everything he needs to survive his first winter in the wilderness. Victor helps him find crews for things Darwin can’t do himself, thing like digging a septic system and drain field and installing his solar panels. – 4,100 words and two scenes: Albuquerque shopping and the hacienda area.
Chapter 9: Penance Before Reconciliation – Darwin returns to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Gwen is reluctantly drawn into an argument between Darwin and Vincent, and in the process, she hears Darwin’s confession about what happened at Berkeley and why he’s living in isolation in the New Mexico wilderness in winter. The raw intensity of his darkness terrifies her. – 4,200 words and one scene, Vincent’s living room at Thanksgiving.
Chapter 10: The Art of War – Darwin’s war on rats, while mostly over, still has rebellious flareups. Murphy, his two year old German Shorthair, who’s become Darwin’s constant companion has Darwin’s back the afternoon in Red River when Darwin rescues Anna from drunk Texans taking too many liberties. Overall, Darwin’s efforts to atone for what happened at Berkeley have stalled but he diligently keeps himself current with technology while wrestling with the moral implications of what he should do to fix the mess he made. – 4,200 words and three scenes: Darwin’s hacienda, Red River sidewalk, and Vincent’s Apartment.
Chapter 11: Road to Redemption – Darwin spends an afternoon in his high-mountain meadow contemplating the causal string of events that brought him to this moment and how they’re tied to the rich history of Marquez Mountain. Somehow, his thought exercise morphs into a reveal of how he feels about his growing relationship with Anna and how Anna sees Darwin and the journey he’s on. – 4230 words and one scene: the high mountain meadow.
Chapter 12: Code of The West – Anna helps Darwin get twelve highly coveted elk permits. When he distributes them to local families his status within the valley’s Hispanic community elevates to sainthood. Mateo takes Darwin on a practice elk hunt where pissed-off rattlesnakes and an angry earth try killing him. – 4,550 words and two scenes: Taos café and the plateau portion of Darwin’s property.
Chapter 13: Meet Me In Tangier – Tien unexpectedly arrives in secret to share with her former mentor, what she’s done and how fate is providing them both an opportunity to balance their ledgers of life. She replays the painful family secret that’s become her burden to reconcile. – 4,450 words and five scenes: Darwin’s hacienda, driving to Berkeley, a Vancouver conference, Tien’s Oakland garage, Tangier Morocco.
Chapter 14: The Coming Singularity – Before Tien even steps out of her rental car, Darwin knows why she’s here. What he doesn’t fully appreciate is just how big of a mess she made trying to fix the mess he made at Berkeley and the extent of the challenges they’ll face if she can successfully coax him back into technology. Her compelling argument is that Darwin’s talents are needed to deal with the coming singularity. – 4,630 words, one scene: Darwin’s hacienda.
Chapter 15: Circle of Life – Darwin welcomes Vincent and Ilene for their week-long visit. He proudly walks Vincent through his latest off-grid upgrades while talking about the challenges of living a self-sustaining life. Darwin is hoping to have a chance to discuss his Tien dilemma with his brother, but when Vincent reveals the struggles he and Ilene are currently dealing with, that takes precedence. – 4,510 words, two scenes: hacienda courtyard and new stucco shop.
Chapter 16: Where Time Stands Still – Upon returning home from a day in the high mountain meadow, Vincent and Darwin discover Ilene’s packed up and gone back to Chicago. With his marriage in trouble, Vincent insists on flying his private plane back that night unaware a fast-moving storm is rolling in over the Rockies. On learning Vincent’s plane crashed, Darwin rushes to Chicago to be with Ilene and Issac. – 4,615 words and seven scenes: high mountain meadow, Darwin’s hacienda, Taos airport, the hacienda, car drive to Santa Fe, Vincent’s apartment, Chicago airport.
Chapter 17: Everyone Has a Death Story – Anna joins Darwin for his annual Remembrance Dinner. Sensing Darwin has something to tell her that he doesn’t want to talk about, Anna works hard to get Darwin to reveal why he’s in crisis. Eventually Darwin tells Anna that Ilene blames him for Vincent’s death and has forbidden him from seeing Issac even though he vows to stay involved in Issac’s life. – 4,370 words and one scene: crowded Taos restaurant.
Chapter 18: In Chaos There Is Opportunity – To distract himself from the pain of being estranged from Issac, Darwin builds the necessary infrastructure for the technology challenges ahead. He shows Alfonso, his nearly completed solar panel farm and underground command center built to biblical proportions. Tien joins them to discuss their next steps and the challenges contained in both defining the problem they’re attempting to solve and coming up with viable solutions. – 4,390 words and two scenes: Darwin’s hacienda and his Command Center.
Chapter 19: Synchronicity – Gossip and Machiavellian intrigue weaves it’s way through Darwin’s world building toward a showdown between Anna and Tien that Darwin is at a loss to manage. – 5,250 words and four scenes: crowded Taos café with two trust-funders, same café with Darwin and Anna, Darwin’s Command Center with Darwin and Tien, and the hacienda courtyard with Darwin, Gabe, Tien and Anna.
Chapter 20: The Subtle Seduction – The rise of Information Oligarchs and the decline of humanity; an essay detailing the history of how the world arrived at this existential precipice. – 2,100 words and no scenes, this is an essay.
Chapter 22: Outliers and Shadow Dancers – For the first time since Berkeley, Darwin’s old team is back together. To Darwin’s surprise, Basia brings her daughter Camille to their rendezvous. Camille is not only a talented technologist, she’s part of a small French movement whose goal is to warn society about the dangers of technology. She seems to pass Darwin’s interview/interrogation.
Chapter 23: Cogito Ergo Sum (I Think Therefore, I Am) – The kickoff meeting of Darwin’s reconstituted team begins with Darwin apologizing for what happened at Berkeley before laying out the challenges before them. A week after the rendezvous ends, Darwin ventures up to his high mountain meadow one last time where his fall, as foretold in Marquez Mountain lore, as well as in the story’s opening paragraph, balances with the ledger of life.
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