Extraneous - Richard Siciliano

One man’s irreverent, humorous, and hapless quest for love and purpose.

Arnold Haus has always considered himself to be an extraneous person. After suffering an emotional breakdown, he is immobilized by depression and, when his money runs out, forced to move from his suburban apartment to a cheap residence hotel in the city, where he intends to rehabilitate himself and apply for disability benefits. He is only there for a few days when he witnesses a robbery and shooting in a grocery store. Instead of remaining to help, he runs away carrying the groceries he did not pay for.

Afraid and filled with guilt, Arnold slowly comes to know the other residents of the hotel, who are unlike anyone he has ever known. They, too, appear to be extraneous to society at large, but he discovers that each of them has a dream or an ambition, however absurd or fanciful. Gradually their companionship motivates Arnold to begin a business collective that sells bric-a-brac and used books and records in an old store. Though non-religious, he has also become acquainted with an elderly priest who presides over a mostly empty church and has also lived a life of frustration and disappointment. When Arnold accepts the priest’s offer to be the volunteer manager of a free meal program, the puzzle pieces of his life might just fall into place as he discovers a new sense of purpose…and faith.