Author, author

>> About the Author doubles as both thriller and satire

by JULIET WATERS

Here are a few nice things that can be said about John Colapinto, author of About the Author: first, he's versatile. Readers of As Nature Made Him, Colapinto's first non-fiction book about a boy who was raised as a girl after a botched circumcision, will be surprised by Colapinto's first novel. Although equally gripping, About the Author seems a far stretch from the disturbing story he first wrote for Rolling Stone in 1998.

Second, he's very funny. Part Patricia Highsmith, part Martin Amis and part Jay McInerney (but really only a very, very small part), About the Author is also such a masterfully crafted thriller, you'll soon forget it ever started as a gen-x literary satire.

And finally, he doesn't seem to be anything like the narrator of his novel, which is probably the nicest thing that can be said about him. Cal Cunningham is the quintessential poseur: a pretentious blocked writer who coasts his way through life working at a bookstore in New York City and using his lanky good looks to get regularly laid. It says a lot about Colapinto's talent that he can actually make Cal likeable, especially as Cal becomes increasingly fraudulent. If you're willing to take my word that this is one of the better books you'll read this year, and don't want to know any more about the plot, stop here. Frankly, I advise that.

Still here. Okay I'll reveal part of the plot of Part One, which encompasses the first 50 pages, but after that I can't spoil any more of it. The suspense of this book deserves to be protected.

Cal shares a tiny apartment with a law student named Stewart Church, a non-entity on the surface. The only time they interact is when Cal deigns to answer Stewart's many questions about his evening adventures. Afterwards, Stewart inevitably disappears into the bedroom, to (Cal assumes) jerk off. One day while working at the bookstore, Cal is assigned to assist the latest hot young author, Howard J. Brent (author of Zeitguy) at a book signing. When Brent snubs him, Cal lies, saying he has a novel about to be published. His lie sparks the curiosity of Brent's agent, who gives Cal his card. But of course Cal has no book to give him.

He slumps home to discover Stewart waiting for him with a story he wants Cal to read. It's undeniably brilliant. Stewart confides that he has written a novel, but that he doesn't want to show it to anyone yet. Of course, Cal grabs the first opportunity to sneak into Stewart's room, where he discovers to his horror that not only is the novel excellent, but it is based entirely on Cal, Cal's life, and Cal's nocturnal escapades.

Suffice it to say that when Stewart's novel is published the reviews herald the author of Almost Like Suicide as a "dazzling new talent in American fiction." The book a "daring, funny, moving, riveting debut." And other "once-young novelists of relatively recent fame (McInerney, Ellis, Coupland et al.)" are evoked only to be dismissed as stale. Howard J. Brent, to immunize himself against rough critical comparison, writes a blurb for the back cover. "A whole new era in fiction has dawned, and [name withheld for suspense reasons] is its latest, and possibly its finest, representative."

You may take a stab at guessing what happens, and you may be close, but probably a little off. Colapinto does an impressive job of literary multitasking. At the same time he is satirizing the fairly standard plot of literary theft, he manages to play with expectations to create a plot that's constantly surprising. It is a gripping read, and an incredibly tight novel. Colapinto parodies the endlessly self-conscious gen-x slacker with consistent discipline.

I wouldn't call him the dawn of a new era, but he has written a classic thriller that should remain in bookstores and on bookshelves for a long, long time.

About the Author by John Colapinto. Harper Collins, hc, 253 pp, $37.95