Duluth by Gore Vidal

Duluth, written by Gore Vidal in 1983, is a highly original and entertaining novel. It takes place in a Duluth, Minnesota that is very different from the Duluth in reality. The Duluth in the novel is on Lake Superior as is the real Duluth. Yet the Duluth of the novel is also close to Mexico and New Orleans. On the shore of Lake Superior there are Palm Trees. There are several realities in the novel, the "real" Duluth. There is also a television series, "Duluth." There are is a romance by Rosemary Klein Kantor that is serialized in a women's magazine. Characters die in one "reality" and go to another "reality." There are fictive laws that govern these occurrences. In the "real" Duluth a space ship has landed. In the police chief's office there is a map with a red pin indicating where the ship is. If  the chief moves the pin the space ship moves to that location. The novel also deals with racism and the question of illegal aliens. I prefer Vidal's satirical writings like this to his historical novels. He was a interesting writer.