You Poor Monster Book

"Young Baltimore attorney Hamilton "Ham" Ashe is a man torn between fact and friendship. His neighbor, pal, and client, Sam Shoogey is a former war hero, college football star, professional boxer, and novelist. Or is he? What Hamilton does know is that he's inexplicably drawn to the charming and gregarious raconteur who makes his life hell - but at least worth living." "Representing Shoogey in a nasty divorce case, Ham allows himself to be sucked into his client's wild claims and adventures, much to the consternation of his wife. As more and more of Shoogey's anecdotes unravel and become either delusion or fabrication, however, Ham is faced with the question, "Is a lie a lie if you know it's untrue, or is it just a story?"" With endnotes that may belie everything the reader assumes, Michael Kun plays with the form and function of literature to weave two stories together and tell an innovative tale with a delicate balance of humor and tragedy.

Publishers Weekly

A Baltimore lawyer acquires an engaging but erratic raconteur for a client in Kun's funny, mazy third novel (after My Wife and My Dead Wife). When corporate lawyer Hamilton "Ham" Ashe takes on his neighbor Sam Shoogey's divorce case (against his better judgment), it's the beginning of a bizarre friendship. Shoogey is a liar extraordinaire-he regales Ham with stories of killing seven men during an unspecified war, sleeping with 150 women, writing lots of books, being a college football star and the like-and Ham finds him fascinating, even if Ham's wife (the "old grapefruit," Shoogey calls her) disapproves. The story of their improbable friendship lies at the heart of Kun's book-just who is Shoogey? And is anything he says true?-which delicately contrasts Ashe's very real family life and Shoogey's wild fantasy existence. While comedy sits on the surface of the narrative, a poignancy that borders on tragedy lies beneath in a novel that "tells the truth and lies in the same voice." Discover New Writers pick; Borders Original Voices pick; author tour. Agent, Sandra Bond. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.