The Midnight Examiner - Hardcover

In this frenetic, only sporadically funny sendup of the scandal magazine trade, the author of Fata Morgana and the popular novelization of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial , mistakes clutter for cleverness. Attached to a threadbare plot about the editors of a fifth-rate scandal sheet trying to save a friend from the clutches of a New York Mafia don named Tony Baloney are more madcap characters than one would want to encounter in 10 novels: wisecracking cabbies, a bubble-headed porn queen, an epileptic mad artist, and an exhausting assortment of soothsayers, goons and deranged editors. All have colorful names (Hip O'Hopp, Mitzi Mouse, Hattie Flyer) to match their personal oddities. Unfortunately, Kotzwinkle puts them through a screwball plot that's more strenuous than exhilarating. After a promising start which captures the desperate humor of people trapped in jobs that embarrass them, the novel gives way to a dogged procession of fistfights and chases, all narrated by a hack journalist in an I've-seen-it-all-and-then-some tone that runs out of comic steam long before the story ends.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kotzwinkle's new novel describes lifeat Chameleon Publications, the home of Knockers, Macho Man, Ladies Own Monthly , and a sleazy, sensational tabloid, The Midnight Examiner. The editors struggle to find ways to reuse each other's copy, write headlines, and meet their deadlines, while trying desperately to avoid the poisoned darts from publisher Nathan Fringold's blowgun. Life imitates "art" as these sophisticated--if somewhat eccentric--New Yorkers do battle with the Mafia to save the life of a porn star. An alcoholic reporter, a self-ordained cardinal, a wilting beauty queen, and an Egyptian grave robber-turned-cab driver round out the zany, yet credible, cast of characters. This is a funny, irreverent book that will appeal to anyone with a taste for ribald humor. Highly recommended.
- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.