Top 60 Novels of 2000-2009 Countdown, No. 31

Body of Jonah Boyd by David Leavitt

David Leavitt is one of my favorite writes, and another one of his books shows up higher on the list. I haven't gotten around to reading The Indian Clerk yet, so this shorter work, one that has clever touches of metafiction, appears instead. I started reading Leavitt in The New Yorker and picked up a book of his short stories in the 1980s, when I read a lot more plays and biographies than literary fiction. His prose style is impeccable, and he's one of those late-boomer writers (born from 1958 to 1965) that I've followed since the beginning -- Jonathan Franzen, Doug Coupland, Jay McInerney, Michael Chabon and Jennifer Finney Boylan to name a few. Anyway, this one is a clever diversion, about the circumstances surrounding a strange family and the loss of a manuscript . I recall that this novel was one I asked the Washoe County Library to buy; the collections staff  members were accommodating when I asked for stuff.