Something Gorgeous by Junior Burke (2005, Paperback)

A quick, stimulating read, this novel is a spirited but inconsistent experiment in re-creating the world of F. Scott Fitzgerald, an author much admired by Burke. In one sense it can be considered to be stuff left over from one of the Roaring Twenties classics, but beyond that it continues as a kind of post-script to those years, and indeed the years well after Fitzgerald's death. It includes a sub-plot about Major League baseball, and a bizarre excursion into an alleged drug-importation scheme via US military bases, profits of which the author claims to have helped finance the young Nazi Party!
The author turns a phrase brilliantly, and obviously has a consuming interest in the milieu of the Jazz Age, 1920s' Germany, and the antics of the decadent upper class. Still, there are some startling gaps in the basic historico-cultural knowledge necessary for such a period-piece. In the delineation of character, projective imagination is essential. Not even the best writers get it right all the time, and unfortunately the motivations and inner lives of some of the major characters here are flat and unconvincing.
Incidentally, this tremendously gifted and accomplished writer was not well-served by his publisher, who should have invested more effort into the clean-up (or prevention) of numerous typographical errors.
All this being said, many will enjoy this book, and many will likewise be provoked into sustained speculations about some unusual questions. Only a stick-in-the-mud would call it dull, but only a complete fool would call it great. Still, it's no shame to be there in the middle, and this reviewer gives his copy a proud place on the shelf as a reminder of a passionate and distinctive modern writer.
Incidentally, this reviewer isn't "on the take" from Junior Burke, but under the heading "Share the Love", he recommends that anybody even slightly interested should look at the web-site juniorburke.com: many pleasant surprises there!