In order to fulfill his creative ambitions, the unnamed narrator of Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces: A Novel battles a world unkind to artists as he recounts his descent into ignominy from the mountains of New Mexico to an insane asylum in California. A multi-layered work told through both image and word, the novel is a commentary on the Chicano literary canon and how the stories of outsiders fit into the larger context of Chicano literature.