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James Magnuson is the author of eight previous novels and the recipient of multiple fellowships and awards for fiction. He currently directs the James A. Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. He lives in Austin.
Famous Writers I Have Known
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ISBN-13:
9780393242782
- Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
- Publication date: 01/06/2014
- Sold by: Barnes & Noble
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 336
- File size: 578 KB
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“A triumphantly preposterous fish-out-of-water campus caper . . . hilarious.”—Washington Post
In this brilliant mix of literary satire and crime caper, Frankie Abandonato, a small-time con man on the run, finds refuge by posing as V. S. Mohle—a famously reclusive writer—and teaching in a prestigious writing program somewhere in Texas. Streetwise and semiliterate, Frankie finds that being treated as a genius agrees with him.The program has been funded by Rex Schoeninger, the world’s richest novelist, who is dying. Buzzards are circling, angling for the remains of Rex’s fortune, and Frankie quickly realizes that he has been presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Complicating matters is the fact that Rex is haunted by a twenty-five-year feud with the shadowy Mohle. What rankles Rex is that, while he has written fifty bestsellers and never gotten an ounce of literary respect, Mohle wrote one slender novel, disappeared into the woods, and become an icon. Determined to come to terms with his past, Rex has arranged to bring his rival to Texas, only to find himself facing off against an imposter.
Famous Writers I Have Known is not just an unforgettable literary romp but also a surprisingly tender take on two men—one a scam artist frantic to be believed, the other an old lion desperate to be remembered.
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Library Journal
01/01/2014Magnuson's eighth novel begins like a humorous crime caper à la Elmore Leonard but quickly evolves into a sly satire of contemporary authorship and the academic writing workshop. A chain of unusual circumstances leads Frankie Abandonato, a small-time con man, into impersonating V.S. Mohle, a reclusive writer (clearly modeled on J.D. Salinger) with a cultlike following, who has been coaxed into leading a semester-long workshop in a renowned creative writing program in Texas. Mohle has a long-standing feud with the workshop's benefactor, Rex Schoeninger, a Micheneresque writer of historical epics. Initially intending to hide from the mob, collect Mohle's generous paycheck, and perhaps bilk Rex out of a portion of his considerable fortune, Frankie is increasingly drawn into the lives of his writing students and an uneasy father-son relationship with Rex. VERDICT Magnuson (The Hounds of Winter; dir., James A. Michener Ctr. for Writers, Univ. of Texas) knows well the territory and personalities of which he writes, and his joy at poking affectionate fun at them is infectious. An underlying theme regarding the tension between literature and popular fiction (and whether something can be both) doesn't detract from the entertainment.—Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis