Murderer. Thief. Deserter. Polygamist. Innocent?
Manalive begins in a way similar to Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, only the tenants of Mrs. Duke’s boarding house have no rainy-day excuse for their inactivity. The day is nearing its completion, and the boarders are divided into male and female, the females languishing inside, the males in the garden, neither group saying or doing much of anything. Into this "dead" setting blows (literally) Innocent Smith, a man so fully alive that those he comes in contact with seem like statues by comparison. (On his arrival at the boarding house, he climbs a tree in pursuit of a hat, and one of the boarders says, "I never even noticed that tree before." This is typical of the experiences to follow.)
