From Library Journal Poet Wachtel turned to fiction with this fanfare-for-the-common-man first novel (LJ 1/15/83)， which won the Pen/Hemingway Citation. The plot follows the dreary existence of protagonist Joe， a 27-year-old Vietnam vet， who， despite his nickname of the title， reads water meters in Brooklyn and Queens. As his marriage dissolves， Joe fears he is just another nameless nobody in a world of nameless nobodys; just another Joe among countless others.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information， Inc.