Taking some convalescent wanders around Reading, the narrator of The Constitutionals, a figure haunted by being called Crusoe in childhood, also `sets out to avert global catastrophe, hoping to trigger the end of neoliberalism by going for a walk.' What does he discover about the place in which he's settled with his wife, who he will call Friday, and their ocean-haunted daughter? Published on the tercentenary of Robinson Crusoe's appearance, our author answers such questions by paying sustained tribute to the town, and the founding `autobiography' by which it has-as have so many works alluded to here-been indelibly marked.