Benjamin

Authorial arrogance gets a hilarious thwacking in this twisty mind-bender from novelist Winters (Underground Airlines) and Italian cartoonist Leomacs. Benjamin J. Carp, a science fiction writer with a cult following (though he hates that term), wakes up in a motel room with no memory of how he got there. The real problem, according to nerdy motel clerk Marcus Dingle, who becomes his unwilling “amanuensis,” is not Carp’s bad memory but the fact that he actually died years ago. This revelation kicks off a chaotic investigation, which largely involves Carp barreling around town with Dingle in tow and spouting off one theory after another about what might have happened. A self-proclaimed hero with an exaggerated sense of his own importance, he assumes he’s a true “man of consequence... a sort of Jesus figure.” Winters revels in the sci-fi-mystery mash-up, coding Carp as a Philip K. Dick type, complete with beard, schlubby attire, and days lost to amphetamine-fueled writing jags. Though some of the third act plot points draw too heavily from Groundhog Day and A Christmas Carol, the madcap spirit and Leomacs’s jaunty artwork more than compensate. Readers will have fun with this fast-paced, smart, and self-aware caper. (Mar.)