James Magnuson (1941–2026)

Fiction
Magnuson, James
Famous Writers I Have Known: A Novel
Read by Kevin T. Collins
Audible audio edition, 10 hours and 11 minutes, unabridged, $4.99
Also available in hardcover (2014) and paperback (W. W. Norton, 978-0-393-35081-4, 320 pgs. $15.95, January 2015)


Famous Writers I Have Known by James Magnuson, director of the James A. Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, is unequal parts noir, caper, and satirical sendup of creative writing programs and the show more contemporary literary scene, generally.

Frankie Abandonato is a career grifter in New York forced to flee after his latest con goes murderously awry. The first flight out of La Guardia is to Austin and Frankie takes off. Landing in Austin, he’s mistaken for V. S. Mohle (think J.D. Salinger), a famously reclusive author who has agreed to teach a writing workshop at a prestigious fiction program. Sensing the con of a lifetime, Frankie assumes the mantle of tortured genius and must ultimately confront Mohle’s nemesis, Rex Schoeninger (think James Michener). The two writers haven’t spoken since feuding over a Pulitzer came to blows on The Dick Cavett Show.

Famous Authors I Have Known rollicks with farce, especially when Frankie tries to bluff his way through literature workshops, where he mistakes Jay Gatsby for an author, is baffled by “some Cheever guy,” finds himself on the phone with Günter Grass, and assigns exercises such as “Describe a field as seen by a cow. Do not mention the cow.” Students make earnest declarations: “Realism is the atlas of fiction!”
Magnuson’s dialogue is smart, quick, and often hilarious. Here Frankie and his former partner, who have been in prison for most of the 1990s, discuss a newfangled scam involving African royalty and something called email:

“If you think I’m going to pose as a Nigerian prince, you’re crazy.”
“Did I say you were going to have to pose as anybody? That’s the beauty of it. It’s all done on the computer. It’s totally risk-free.”
“I’m not wearing any goddamned robes.”

This novel is all plot as befits a crime caper. Magnuson is judicious with illustrative detail, not feeling the need to painstakingly draw every brick in the wall when a sketch will do for his purposes. The pace is brisk and even suspenseful as the story approaches its climax, holding attention effortlessly.

Famous Authors I Have Known is read by actor Kevin T. Collins, a veteran of audio narration whose work has won a couple of AudioFile Earphones Awards. Collins’s voice is smooth and his pacing even. Frankie is a combination of cynical world-weariness, perpetual bemusement at the alien literary world he’s landed in, and intermittent existential terror. Collins manages this mixture with aplomb, although a bit more attitude would be appropriate and his choice of where to place the emphasis in any particular phrase seemed off at times. Collins does a satisfying range of voices and accents, managing to make Texans sound like Texans, not caricatures.

Magnuson romps through the novel, lightheartedly skewering literary pretention, joining the perennial debate about what is art and what is popular. Is there more value in a single critically-acclaimed novel, or in a career of prosaic prose that “kept generations of readers reading?” Does it matter?

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. show less

The streets of New York City are over run with orphans and abandoned children when in 1853 a retired minister and his niece make arrangements with families in the Midwest to open their homes to these children. Factually, this mission continued through 1904.

This story is focused upon that first journey by train toward a new life for a handful of children led by Emma Symms. The story is funny, poignant and at times, tragic. At the beginning, Emma is almost clueless about what lies ahead--she show more is not the classic motherly type and only signed on because it was so very important to her uncle. Yet her courage, common sense and instincts plus help from an unexpected direction, make it all possible. show less

Folksy writing style but I was altogether unimpressed with the story. As satire, it doesn’t hold a candle to Supreme Courtship (Christopher Buckley).

The premise has a con man, who accidentally swindles mobsters, hiding out in a writers’ colony. For a couple months he manages to pull the wool of over the eyes of the student writers, the academics who operate the program, and the world famous author who sponsors the program. Magnuson falls short of capitalizing on circumstances that lend show more themselves to satire. Along with that meandering sub plots add little to the story or the satire. For me the ending felt like it was tacked on quickly to meet a deadline.

Readable writing enlivened flat characters, but I wouldn’t recommend this book to friends. show less

A breezy, entertaining twist on the classic mystery-heist-con novel. Pokes fun at creative writing programs, and at thinly disguised authors -- J.D. Salinger and James Michener.