Genius Jack

Depicting the career of a ruthless, depraved and brilliant director, this 11th novel by the noted British film critic, screenwriter and novelist (The Time Before War) presents a splendid, diabolically camouflaged roman a clef. The highs and lows of this tale are inescapably evocative of American-born film wunderkind Joseph Losey, who not so incidentally directed the acclaimed film version of one of Wiseman's previous novels. The story trails Jack Strawley from his teenage druggie days in the Broadway movie houses of the 1940s to his Hollywood triumphs and expatriation to Britain, climaxing in his dramatic final achievements in New York. Narrated by film critic Stephen Dall, an old friend of Jack's, the novel unfolds in long flashbacks after Dall is summoned during the winter of 1988 to a sleazy New York loft where the once-revered Jack Strawley is filming his own death as his final film noir. Major players in the often shady game of Jack's life include playwright Carl Schmidlin, a gifted Jewish refugee from Vienna who inadvertently helps Jack's career early on (losing his mistress to him in the process) and then finds himself riding with Jack all the way to the top. But Carl (as well as Gloria, who becomes Jack's on-and-off wife) is just one of many used, hurt and helped by Strawley's fame and excesses. Trailing a wake of starry-eyed young women, ill-used benefactors and betrayed friends, Strawley barrels his way through the film world alternately consumed and unscathed by its striving, back-scratching corruption. Greed, lust, booze and drug-fogged madness eventually destroy this self-absorbed prodigy flying too close to the sun. A master craftsman at the top of his form, Wiseman offers a keyhole peek at the seamier side of cinema. (Mar.)