William Conescu's short stories have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, New Letters, Green Mountains Review, and other publications. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Being Written is his first novel.
Being Written: A Novel
Paperback
$13.95
- ISBN-13: 9780061451348
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publication date: 09/09/2008
- Series: P.S. Series
- Pages: 224
- Product dimensions: 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)
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Daniel Fischer has a secret. He knows he's a character in a book that's being written. He's the only one who knows, the only one who's aware of the author's presence—but what good does it do Daniel? He's just a minor character. The author seems much more interested in other people's lives. Now Daniel is determined to win a bigger part, and he'll do whatever it takes to get the author's attention and make this story his own.
Suspenseful, subversive, and hilarious, Being Written is an audaciously inventive literary turn that gleefully calls into question who we trust, what we believe, and how the stories of our lives are created.
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Metro Magazine
At once experimentally playful and existentially poignant, and both ultra literary and ultra readable. The novel ultimately includes both that love triangle, and a few suspenseful turns and even a surprise twist at the end. One of the most impressive and memorable debuts this year.News and Sentinel
This book is a mind warp, and will have you thinking even after the story is finished.Herald-Sun (NC)
Part thriller and part essay on the relationship of writers and the characters they create.Zachary Lazar
BEING WRITTEN is a first novel of great charm, imagination, and wit. Conescu is a dextrous storyteller with a gift for wicked twists and a dazzlingly urbane sense of both drama and humor.Akhil Sharma
A white-knuckle thrill ride. You simply can’t put this book down once you’ve picked it up.Wilton Barnhardt
Ionesco, eat your heart out. I suppose you could argue the hero is simply nuts, but I’d rather argue that William Conescu is simply a genius!Herald-Sun (Durham NC)
"Part thriller and part essay on the relationship of writers and the characters they create."NC Herald-Sun
Part thriller and part essay on the relationship of writers and the characters they create.New Orleans Times-Picayune
An adroit riff on literary conventions, turning various genres on their heads. A clever debut.Baton Rouge Advocate
At times playful, at times frightening, Conescu’s book is always readable.Publishers Weekly
In this first novelist's promising foray into metafiction, on-and-off second-person narrator Daniel Fischer has a talent for hearing the sound of a pencil scratching whenever someone is being written about. Otherwise, he's your standard red-haired, freckle-faced nebbish. After a lifetime apparently consigned to being part of the scenery in other characters' stories, a one-night stand with singer Delia Benson puts him in the limelight. As he awkwardly maneuvers himself into Delia's circle of friends-including her boyfriend, Graham, a struggling musician making ends meet as a gay-for-pay hooker-he second-guesses the purpose and extent of his role in the novel of Delia and Graham (passages of which appear throughout). Daniel reads a writing manual to determine what he should be doing and where the book is taking him, and in an attempt to make himself essential to Delia's and Graham's stories, he pulls strings to change their lives, but his plans massively backfire. Conescu's light, swift and nicely structured dark comedy puts to the test a character's ability to outwrite his own author. In the end, the author wins. (Sept.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.