Bookish People

By Paul Gray

INKLINGS by Geoffrey Wolff

Random House; 190 pages; $7.95

In writing a novel about a book reviewer who wants to write a novel, Author Geoffrey Wolff, 40, has certainly staked out the turf he knows best. In addition to two earlier novels and a literary biography, Wolff has reviewed books for a raft of publications, including the Washington Post, Newsweek and New Times. What he does not know about the various satrapies of New York publishing is not worth hearing. So, unfortunately, is some of what he does know.

Inklings has its share of moments. His protagonist, Jupe, 45, is a nice mixture of self-regard and self-loathing. He has convinced himself and his attractive, loving wife that "all the big books" have already been written. He feigns astonishment that "for the sake of some silly grabs at eternal life people would sacrifice secure jobs, loving families, decencies and proportion." Jupe finds such behavior vain and cannot keep himself any longer from imitating it.

As long as this anti-hero is kept rattling around, Manhattan, the novel remains a kind of manic satire. Jupe moderates a panel discussion during the convention of Writers Inc. (a "United Nations of literary bureaucrats"); his colleagues include a writer who is making a fortune from confessional books about himself and an author who has sold out splendidly to television. Everyone makes a proper fool of himself, especially Jupe. Elsewhere, Jupe proposes some revisions in the National Book Awards so that every entrant would win something: "There would be awards for The Best Biography of a Man Born on June 2, 1898; and for The Best Novel Titled Love Story. The Best Likeness on a Dust-Jacket Photograph would win a blue ribbon, and so would The Best Job of Spelling."

When Jupe goes off to Maine to write his novel, things turn awfully serious and seriously awful. An ex-student from one of Jupe's creative-writing classes tracks him down. Jupe had once told the young man that he had talent; as a private joke, he had told everybody in the class the same thing. Now, the student has 15 beer cases full of his handwritten novel and a gun to keep Jupe's attention from wandering. Messages begin to loom at this point. Jupe must be taught that Words Have Meaning; he must experience at first hand the Relationship Between Criticism and Creation.

Wolff is never less than intelligent and clever. His novel tails off because he plays with too many ideas rather than too few.

Inklings also suffers from some lofty competition. Pale Fire remains the final, funniest fictional word on the author-critic tug-of-war. Nabokov and very few others have managed to do what Wolff does not: make bookish people interesting in books.

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