An obsessive philatelist encounters 132 year old men; two-minute Nostradamuses; pride; sadists; prejudice; desire, even flesh-eating bugs, in his insatiable desire for stamps.
In the tried, true and intentionally trite tradition of classic literature, a Stamp Collecting maniac is given a series of tasks by a mysterious old man: a Texan dressed like a Kentuckian-Chicken colonel, living in the better suburbs of Sydney, insisting that he's 132 years old. The reward for achieving the tasks: an extremely rare stamp.
Fed up, his wife wants to leave him - making him even more vulnerable to the charms of beautiful, unobtainable 'waitresses' and nurses, showing him any kindness as part of their duties.
The Collector must prove that he spent quality time with a sadistic criminal and his body-building buddy; with a Mother Teresa type in the vast Australian outback (where he fights off flesh-eating bugs); and a prostitute in a suburban brothel raided by gangsters.
His obsession leads him to a homeless old woman who can foretell the future (two minutes maximum); and to the stamp which breaks the camel's back, culminating in a cathartic climax of sorts.
A treat for avid readers: its stylistic kaleidescope of comedic veneer belies a serious core regarding obsession, bigotry and the act of writing.