Sounds Like Crazy

A woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder takes center stage in Mahaffey's lamentable not-quite comedy. Holly Miller shares her head with a number of personalities, from the demanding Southern belle Betty Jane to the terse Sarge, as she pursues a career in voice-over work (surely a snap for someone who hears voices). The first half of the book—a tangle of unfortunate events strung together to maximize Three Stooges –style slapstick—is pure farce, while the second half is a forensic excavation of Holly's past intended to explain her problems. Mahaffey's attempts at turning Holly into something that could be mistaken for a well-developed character, however, is undermined by an avalanche of camp that renders this as absurd as it is pointless. (Oct.)