cover image Half Crazy

Half Crazy

J. M. McDonell. Little Brown and Company, $19.95 (258pp) ISBN 978-0-316-55560-9

The cheeky, fresh and compelling narrator's voice immediately draws one into this roman a clef about angelically beautiful Miranda, who hails from unillustriously poor white-trash forebears in Arkansas and comes to New York, where she begins a career as a model. Narrator Dave Brown is an author of romance fiction, a gay guy whose sweetness, vulnerability and devotion to Miranda will endear him to readers of any persuasion. Dave's wistful crush on a Hollywood actor forms a muted subplot, but Miranda is his idol. He frets about her mood swings and tries to shield her from predatory swains while the two bounce around the high end of New York's show-biz society along with a cast of funny, flamboyant characters. Unfortunately, Miranda's other male fans are prime cads and criminals. Midway, her career topples when her vicious landlord (whose advances she has spurned) hires goons to slash her face. The novel's upbeat sassiness wilts, seemingly with nowhere to go, like Miranda. Dave muses on Miranda's ``still hypnotic'' visage, which has become a ``crazy mirror'' for other people. False friends drop from view, and one villain remains to be quashed--the boyfriend who plots to sell Miranda's life story (padded with lies) to the movies. McDonell writes with warmth, wit and credibility about the urban beauty scene and its fragility. (Mar.)