About Face

Giraldi (Busy Monsters) centers this fizzy caper on the relationship between a messiahlike guru and a bumbling journalist. After Seger Jovi publishes a searing critique of the self-help celebrity Val Face, Face’s wife, Nimble, retaliates by offering Seger the compromising privilege of serving as Face’s official chronicler. The lucrative deal comes with the condition that everything Seger writes must be vetted, and Seger agrees to the Faustian bargain. In his narration, Seger describes Face as gorgeous and charismatic: “the face alone, in its masculine beauty and range, could whisper or holler whatever inner calm or warp needed vent.” Face’s handlers are myriad and absurd: Vera, Valerie, Veronica, and bodyguard Mario, a Barry Manilow fan. All of them treat Seger with bored disdain during his attempts to interview them, except for the ever unavailable Face. But when a stalker named Bill threatens Face, Seger’s the only one who can recognize him, making him indispensable to the crew’s effort to catch Bill. Giraldi is known for wacky narrative voices, and here the volume is turned way up. The story is ridiculous by design, the silly and obvious metaphors coming fast and furious. Though the jokes eventually wear thin, they make for an apt commentary on America’s obsession with celebrity. Agent: David Patterson, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Sept.)