A Parisian from Kansas

Darren Swenson, a gay American expatriate from a conservative Kansas farm family, is dying of AIDS in Paris, where he went to remake himself as a cosmopolite. To redeem his life, which he feels has been a meaningless succession of love affairs and dead-end jobs, he enlists a young American in Paris, would-be novelist Philippe Tapon (the author inserting himself as central character), to write ""a self-referent novel... a novel that talks about itself,"" memorializing Darren's life and tragic death. In this smart, sexually graphic, but ultimately frustrating metafictional debut, Tapon's literary alter-ego, Phillipe, constantly argues with Darren and other characters over the story's unfolding structure: ""real"" and imaginary scenes meld; magical realism pops up when Darren's dead lover, a Wall Street whiz kid, pays Philippe a visit. We even get a cluster of reviews of the published novel, along with abundant allusions to Fitzgerald, Hemingway and John Irving's The World According to Garp. Tapon offers a wry perspective on the American Dream. The most moving scenes are Darren's homecoming, at which he tells his parents he's HIV-positive; his confrontations with his bullying, 400-pound homophobic mother; and his gutsy coming-out to his gay-hating college fraternity. While Tapon provides an adventurous investigation of the creative process, a multilayered exploration of gay identity and an unnerving analysis of society's response to the AIDS crisis, this tediously self-conscious performance eventually alienates the reader from Darren's plight. (Mar.)