Books like Low-Lands

The story begins with Dennis Flange, a Long-Island attorney and ex-Navy communications officer, entertaining his friend and garbage man, Rocco Squarcione. As the two drink Rocco's home-made muscatel and listen to Vivaldi, they are suddenly dropped in on by one of Flange's old Navy friends, Pig Bodine. Unfortunately, his unexpected visit is not at all appreciated by Dennis' wife of seven years, Cindy -- Bodine was responsible for carting her husband off during their wedding reception and taking him on a two-month drinking spree that landed Flange in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, completely broke. Already angered by Rocco's presence in her house, the sight of Pig sends Cindy into a state of fury and she promptly commands the trio to leave and never come back. Kicked out of the house and without even a change of clothes, Flange ponders his situation when Rocco mentions that a friend of his by the name of Bolingbroke is a watchman at the local garbage dump and would be able to put both Dennis and Pig up for the night. After Rocco leaves the two with Boligbroke, the watchman and his guests grab two extra mattresses and retreat into his shack-like home in the middle of the dump. There, they drink home-made wine and tell sea-stories until they fall asleep.In the middle of the night, however, Flange is awakened by a girl's voice urging him to come outside. After a moment of indecision, he ventures out to find whoever is calling him, and discovers that the voice belongs to a beautiful, three and a half foot tall gypsy by the name of Nerissa. After introducing herself, she leads the bewildered Flange into the piles of garbage, through a door made from a discarded refrigerator, and into a network of underground tunnels that eventually leads to her surprisingly elaborate room. There, Nerissa introduces Flange to her pet rat Hyacinth and explains to him that a fortune-teller had told her that she would marry a tall, blonde, Anglo-Saxon man with strong arms. As Dennis fits the description, she asks him to stay with her, and after a brief moment of contemplation, he agrees.