I have always been a great fan of meta-fiction, especially if there is a strong crime-based plot wound into it. I don’t know why novels about writing novels should be so appealing, but they always are.

This is a particularly fine example, and one that reminded me of The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz which I picked up by chance fairly recently and thoroughly enjoyed. In that, without giving away too much of an intricate plot, a writer who has one successful book under his belt but has struggled to follow it with anything of consequence ends up delivering creative writing classes at a university summer school. One summer he encounters a particularly unpleasant student who boasts about having developed a marvellous plot that he is simply biding his time to write. On a drunken evening he describes the plot to the teacher who, basically, steals it.

In this book there is a slightly different twist in that Cal Cunningham, the protagonist, has his heart set upon being a writer but can’t overcome his procrastinatory nature sufficiently actually to sit down and write. In the meantime, he is living high on the hog in New York, and recounting his exploits to his rather tame and unassuming flatmate. Little does he realise that his flatmate is himself writing reams of text, in which he commits excerpts from Cal’s life to paper in what becomes an amazing novel. Cal discovers this by chance, on the same day that the flatmate dies.

Feeling that this was really his story anyway, Cal decides to steal the story, retyping it and passing it off as his own. It is published to stratospheric critical acclaim and secures immense commercial success, with the film rights being bought for a huge sum. This success does not bring the undiluted joy for which Cal had hoped. He is still unable to bring himself to start another book, and as his wealth and comfort accrue, he feels increasingly vulnerable to exposure. He feels he has done everything to cover his tracks, but he is wrong.

Colapinto handles the material excellently. I was sucked into the story right from the start, and bought into it entirely. Cal is a well-drawn character. Although he is a fraud and a rampant opportunist, the reader feels his frustration and outrage as various risks arise. ( )

Funny, clever, suspenseful, satirical, this would make a good movie! (in joke!) ( )

I read John Colapinto's pieces every now and then in The New Yorker where he is a staff writer, and they are always unfailingly good; most recently he did an article on grease - the fortunes that have been made and lost on used cooking oil and grease. It was interesting enough that I Googled the guy and found he had written a novel, this one: ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

It's an enormously compelling, gripping, "the-plot-thickens-and-then-thickens-again" kind of story about lies, literary theft, blackmail and murder." There's a love story of sorts in there too, along with some pretty kinky AC/DC sex scenes, and the book is not without humor. Set in Manhattan and rural Vermont, the book boasts some very interesting characters, particularly Cal Cunningham, the protagonist-narrator, an aspiring and then dishonestly-and-wildly successful young writer. There are constant plot twists which keep you eagerly turning pages. In other words, a very literary chiller-thriller which hooks you early, plays you skillfully, then slowly reels you in, for a most satisfying, if perhaps slightly unbelievable, conclusion. A sly look at what it takes to be successful as a writer in America today, not without some all-too-true digs at the publishing industry. A quick and entertaining read I would not hesitate to recommend. Colapinto is a facile and talented writer. ( )

As someone earlier wrote, it's a gentle thriller---easy to read but somewhat dramatic with what keeps happening when you think it's going to get stuck somewhere! Cleverly written. ( )

I enjoyed this book. It's a bit metafictional. Towards the end the main character, the author of the title, writes about himself writing the book and it's still all part of the book. A little mind-bending. But he's no Italo Calvino or anything. It's pretty much a page turner. Sometimes it seems a little far-fetched, but I was able to accept the premise pretty easily. A good read if you've always wanted to write a novel, but you've never actually written much at all. ( )