When my local bookstore posted on Facebook they were having "Booky Books" week, they announced the first book on sale was The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, a novel about a bookstore owner coping with slumping sales and the theft of his rare collection of Poe poems. Books about books—reading them, writing them—are among my favorites, so I replied to the bookstore's post that I'd be there in five minutes (they're two blocks away from my apartment). It was half off, if I remember correctly, and I read all two-hundred and sixty pages in one sitting. Then there's also booky books that aren't really known as such—Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys comes to mind—that bibliophiles still love because we can still see ourselves in them. Jack London's Martin Eden is a classic; our main character Martin is an omnivorous devourer of books and even forgoes wage employment to spend all his time reading and writing. Jonathan Franzen's notorious essay, "Perchance to Dream," that appeared in Harper's in April 1996, bemoaned a declining readership where people had abandoned books for passive entertainment like television. (This is of course part of Franzen's tortured artist shtick, publisher's sales figures show otherwise.) His point would have been better made if he'd just griped that people weren't reading the types of books that he liked.

Curtis T. Reed, the main character in Joe West's latest novel Tears Into Wine, is well aware of what types of books the public wants to read, and panders to them by writing precisely those types of books. He writes slutty erotica books under a pen name, Randi Chaminde, of course not wanting the readers to know that he's a man—especially a morbidly obese, alcoholic, balding man (the author photo on the book covers shows a hot woman in a yellow bikini). However, he's finally written the Great American Novel that he's always wanted to write, a serious book that will plant his flag atop Mount Literature. He brings the manuscript to his agent, Daniel Madrid, but the agent says no. “You have got to see this thing from my side,” Daniel says as if he were speaking to an incontinent dog. “Selling you, the real you, is incredibly fucking hard.”

Curtis has been in the business long enough to know what sells and what doesn't—he knows his agent is right. However, he's determined to get his novel published and comes up with a scheme that will get his agent on board. He approaches a young local poet, JD Monahan, who self publishes his own poetry books. Like a lot of "local poets," JD's poetry sucks:

My Mother was a cunt
Who pushed me into a world
I did not want
My Mother was a whore
Who put me in a system
Where I could not score
My Mother was a bitch
Who beat me when she was drunk
When I refused to flinch
REFUSED TO GIVE IN
When she sold my soul for cigarettes
My Mother is dead
Cold and forgotten
And now I can love her

Curtis tells JD what a terrible writer he is and that he has no chance succeeding as an author writing such drivel. He also tells JD he knows how he can make JD a literary star. He offers JD a cut of his novel royalties if JD will allow him to put JD's name on the cover of his novel. JD is charismatic and good looking (the opposite of Curtis)—perfect to go on a book tour giving interviews and readings. JD agrees to go along with it, and Curtis's novel, Tears Into Wine, has JD Monahan in the byline. 

Daniel arranges a book tour for them; they'll be speaking and reading at various bookstores across the country, and Curtis will be acting as JD's manager. And here is where Joe West really shines. In most books about books, we never get to read what the fictional author has written. In Chabon's Wonder Boys we never see a word of the genius student's novel, even though it's so compelling an agent signs him before even finishing reading the whole book. We get to read along with JD Monahan as he reads the fictional Tears Into Wine to his audiences. The book begins where the story ends—a man is strapped to a gurney waiting to be put to death by the state, his victim is there as a witness to the execution:

“Carol Anne Robison faces the window, silent as always. She hasn’t said a word since she was eleven years old. That is when the man lying on the gurney in the other room cut out her tongue and swallowed it whole. David Wayne Dean is the man in the other room. He was Carol Anne’s neighbor at the time. She wanted to be here today, to be a witness. It is a hollow victory, worthless as all David Wayne Dean ever really wanted was to die. Once again, he gets what he wants while Carol Anne is left to sift through the madness he has caused."

The book tour goes better than expected, Tears Into Wine makes bestseller lists, and JD decides to pull a stunt to get even more publicity. He steals an idling minivan at a gas station to get himself and Curtis to a reading on time and just as the reading begins the cops arrive, slam JD to the ground, and take them both to jail. The story makes the news and the book sells even more.

Curtis is scornful of the employees he meets in the chain bookstores they visit. As much as he loves bookstores, he hates shiny corporate stores and the happy, smiley employees that work there: "I’d rather earn a living as a lab rat trying to find a cure for anal warts than be a franchisee forced to wear this, say that, and in the end, just shut the fuck up and do what you're told." And as the tour goes on and the book sales continue to rise, Curtis begins to feel pangs of envy. JD is getting all the credit and adoration for Curtis's book and he's having second thoughts about the whole thing. JD and the book have become so popular he gets an interview on a national television show—and Curtis is thinking about storming the stage and ripping the tent off the circus to claim the glory that he thinks is all his.

Tears Into Wine is Joe West's second novel. His first novel, Strange Fle$h, features Freddie Bickel, a degenerate loser and dope dealer who would like to put on the golden handcuffs and lead a life of suburban bliss. And much like Curtis T. Reed here, all he has to do is not fuck it up. Despite the cynicism and nihilism of both characters, you can't help but root for them, maybe even like them a little. Curtis tries to be optimistic in the face of his so-far miserable life: "Every fucking sports movie ever made has taught me only one thing; the underdogs always pull it off in the end. Jesus Buddha-hugging Christ, am I ever overdue for a fucking win." He doesn't, however, have much faith in the compassion of the human race: "If compassion were a crime, no one would be arrested, much less accused of committing grand, genuine decency."

Tears Into Wine
by Joe West, 295 pages
Anxiety Press, $18.00

Hugh Blanton's latest book is Kentucky Outlaw. He can be reached on X @HughBlanton5.