What could be more fun than an invented secret society with some of literature's best heroes doing cocaine and sleeping on deck chairs and creating puppet shows in an immobile submarine? Vila-Matas has crafted a tongue-in-cheek novella set in 1925 that waxes poetic on the idea of crafting fiction that is brief, intelligent, mad, and most of all, portable. It feels like fan fiction for a literary crowd. A charming and quick read.