Fall 2005, Bologna Italy. Patrick and I are drinking in a sidewalk café.
Just like this one:

Life is beautiful and crazy ideas come naturally. So after couple glasses of wine (may be more, but who is counting) we come up with idea for a novel: parody on Ayn Rand where her adoration for free market capitalism instead of saving the world brings it down. I wonder why this idea comes back to us now....

A little bit of Dostoevsky comes into play along with Phillip Roth.

So we set it up in United States a bit after WWII. America is a country of hope.
Werners are well to do German-American family living in Pennsylvania suburbs. Three boys: Adolf, Herman and Fritz. The father runs a gas station. He is hard working, self-conscious about German roots after WWII. He decided to change boys name to good American: Allan, Harry and Frank.

will continue....