A survivor himself, the narrator in this tale takes it upon himself to explain the way things are in the land on whose shore the shipwreck has been tossed. The motivation seems to be one of lending a helping hand, but other forces might be at play. "Monologue for a Shipwreck" mixes fact and fable with experimental and confrontational prose. Taken from a collection of notebooks kept by the author through the last forty years, it describes historical events, characters and processes that have shaped our world today.