Boone - Hardcover

Regarding this first novel, there is good news and bad news. First the good news. An innovative, intense, and fresh style marks this "fictional biography" of Eton Arthur Boone, artist, comedian, playwright, filmmaker, author, and actor. In the style of real-life biographies Haywire and Edie , a medley of voices tell Boone's story, as well as their interactions with Boone and his affect on them. Starting as a comic, Boone's impersonations lambasted and illuminated public figures from Richard Burton to J. Edgar Hoover. His life was tormented and ended in a tragic death. Transcripts of Boone's actual performances allow the reader to experience Boone's talent, but herein lies the bad news. Boone is discussed by others as being so extraordinary, so talented that he is ultimately out of reach and distant to the reader, thus making sympathy difficult. So what starts out as a strong and impressive style and story fizzles out after about 100 pages. Still, recommended for larger collections.
- Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Lib., Seaside, Cal.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Twenty-three narrative voices, each "distinctive and accurate in tone and idiom," kaleidoscopically limn the intense life of Eton Arthur Boone, a fictional Greenwich village comic and cult figure. "A tour de force," said PW. "Readers will be mesmerized by this portrait of a man who reflects both the pop culture of the '60s and '70s and the angst of an artistic genius."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.