This
novel is literary fiction about literary fiction. Cal Cunningham
dreams of being a best-selling author; although he never actually
does any writing. He spends his days as a bookstore clerk and his
evenings picking up women. These conquests are part of the material
for his autobiographical novel, and he regularly regales his
roommate Stewart with the details, as if rehearsing how they will
sound on the page. Cal sees Stewart as a dull, reclusive law student
with no artistic soul. You can imagine his surprise, then, when he
discovers that Stewart has written the novel Cal has been dreaming
about writing all these years - partly because it is beautifully
written, told with passion, and full of life, but also because the
life it's full of is Cal's own. Still reeling from the shock, Cal
then learns of his roommate's death in a cycling accident.
This book is
about Cal's life; the choices he makes and how he rationalizes those
options. Cal is self-centred, weak, and immoral, yet he justifies
his actions in a believable way. I couldn't like him, but at times I
almost sympathized as he lives through the Hitchcockian nightmare
that develops. I didn't warm to any of the characters but I was
fascinated by their lives, and how the story would play out. I was
glad when I left them on the last page. About The Author is
a very stylish, well-written book. The narrative flows beautifully
and there are touches of satirical, dark humour. At times, the style
seems almost too self-conscious but it's the self-consciousness of
the rather pretentious Cal Cunningham, whose every word seems to be
uttered with a view as to how it will look in the pages of a novel.
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