Crybaby of the Western World (1968)

John Leonard's first novel, subtitled a novel of Petit Guignol in Long Beach, California, has Stanhope Cronopios, the poet of Long Beach, taken back over the scenes of his memoir of a cult figure called Captain Happen by Gongor, who represents the Myth Department of the New York publishers Cucking Stool & Sons. The cast list also includes Onalred, a Soviet agent with several secrets. (Open Library)

Watches

Bulova Accutron: Bald, leaden-eyed, in celery-coloured hip-huggers and a sheared rabbit battlejacket, Gongor cuts short the talk about whether Long Beach can be explained by consulting his Accutron and growling that if Stanhope takes him round the locales of the manuscript, he will pick up the tab for all the time he is there. His rental car is waiting. The text names the Accutron, Bulova's tuning-fork watch, and no model.

Source text: Gongor, consulting his Accutron, growled: 'Look, you take me around, and I pick up the tab for all the time I'm here (John Leonard, Crybaby of the Western World, scan cataloged as Macdonald, 1968, p. 15, where the OCR garbles the end of the sentence; Gongor is introduced on p. 13; Internet Archive scan OCR)

Bulova Accutron: Breaking into Gerontion Gardens, a fortified camp for senior citizens, Onalred clubs the guard with a bottle of Slivovitz while Stanhope binds and gags him, then checks his Accutron: ten minutes to ten, when the record changes to Auld Lang Syne and the old people are supposed to be in bed. They have ten minutes to lock the other sentries into their boxes and open the gate. The text names the Accutron and no model.

Source text: Onalred checked his Accutron: "Ten minutes to ten. At ten, they change the record, and play Auld Lang Syne. (John Leonard, Crybaby of the Western World, scan cataloged as Macdonald, 1968, p. 117; the cast of characters at the front calls Onalred a Soviet agent with several secrets; Internet Archive scan OCR)