"An impassioned, funny, probing, fiercely inconclusive, nearly-to-the-death debate, about life and art-cocktails included. Caleb Powell always wanted to become an artist, but he over committed to life (he's a stay-at-home dad to three young girls). David Shields always wanted to become a human being, but he has over committed to art. At antipodes since first meeting twenty-five years ago, they headed to a cabin in the Cascade Mountains and threw down. The focus? Life vs. Art. Over the next four days they played chess, shot hoops, hiked, relaxed in a hot tub, watched My Dinner with Andre, Sideways, The Trip, and talked about everything they could think of-genocide, marriage, sex, Toni Morrison, sports, porn, the death penalty, baldness, evil, James Wood, happiness, sports radio, George Bush, drugs, death, betrayal, alcohol, Rupert Murdoch, Judaism, bad book titles-in the name of exploring their central question. While confounding, as much as possible, the divisions between "reality" and "fiction" and between "life" and "art," their dialogue remains dazzlingly provocative and entertaining from start to finish"--