The Norma Gene

This cleverly conceived but very uneven farcical debut aims for high-energy absurdity while exploring what it means to be famous. In a near-future Orlando, Fla., obsessed with spectacle, Abe Finkelstein, an illegal clone of Abraham Lincoln, tries to keep low-key as an American History professor. Norma Jeane Greenberg, one of many Marilyn Monroe clones, is a kleptomaniac working at a perfume counter; she has the classic existential crisis of her cohort about whether to hide behind an everyday life as Norma Jeane or embrace Marilyn’s glamour. When researchers come hunting Abe, hoping to lock him up and study him, Norma Jeane helps him escape into the dubious safety of Disneyland. The science behind the cloning is unsatisfyingly explained to the reader when it should have been thought through better or else omitted entirely. The sexual tension between Abe and Norma Jeane is weak, and the expected consummation is both contextually implausible and summarized with a single sentence in comically large type. Roufa’s plot might work as a staged play with excellent character actors, but in this format, it’s just a bunch of funny moments awkwardly strung together. (Aug.)