cover image L. A. Breakdown

L. A. Breakdown

Louise Matthews. Malvern Publishing Company, $24.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-947993-80-1

New York literati infiltrate the nation's capital in this over-the-top, dishy farce set among the movers and shakers of Clinton-era Washington. The East Hampton Star sends narrator Delancey to D.C. to report on environmental legislation; instead, he finds himself in a whirl of delicious gossip and dramatic extremes. Anastasia Harrington, nee Gertrude Slescynski (a sly refernce to All About Eve)--now the wife of copper tycoon and kingmaker Max Harrington--knows Delancey from her days as a Manhattan glamour gal. She provides his entr e into a rarefied world so debauched that the president's own sexual quirks seem quaint. Max's closeted pet senator keeps a purportedly Shoshone boyfriend named Rain, a youthful veteran of the sex industry. But Rain's hold on the senator may threaten his position. A cross-dressing ballerina, an Italian diva and a mischievously volatile African-American functionary from the Library of Congress all aid Delancey as he waxes subversive--only to find himself mixed up in a plot on the life of the commander-in-chief. McCourt's colorful, if hardly three-dimensional, characters banter in continual conversations on everything from epistemology to opera to the mechanics of porn films. Disconcertingly, McCourt (Time Remaining) presents his work as a roman a clef, but identifies minor characters by real names: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Gore Vidal, D.C. city councilman Harold Brazil. Formidable narrative pyrotechnics allow for an abundance of wry asides and metafictional winks. And the characters' wide-ranging speculations incorporate some gems of insight. Readers unprepared for McCourt's particular subgenre of extended farce may find the wit and wordplay prolix or pedantic. The unrestrained careening of ideas, though it may be a calculated effect, can create an air of self-indulgence. Readers who care for political theory, for Washington melodrama and for high camp, however, will likely find McCourt's work a scream and a half. (Feb.)