Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there… The population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. Into this disaster zone comes a young man — poet, lover, and adventurer — known only as the Kid. Tackling questions of race, gender, and sexuality, Dhalgren is a literary marvel and groundbreaking work of American magical realism. Text is full. The unclosed ending sentence can be read as leading into the unopened opening sentence, turning the novel into an enigmatic circle