Elizabeth McCracken: Niagara falls all over again

By PENELOPE BIEDER

Sixteen-year-old Mose Sharp knows that the Midwest city of Des Moines, Iowa, at the end of the 1920s is not the place for a Jewish lad, so he skips town and school and runs away to join not the circus, but the vaudeville circuit.

When he finds himself in Minneapolis, playing the straight man to a fat, hilarious and self-destructive comedian called Rocky Carter, he is not to know that a brilliant 30-year relationship has just begun and that his life has changed for ever.

Carter and Sharp soon have audiences in the palms of their hands and it's not long before they are heading to Hollywood to make 28 films in 13 years during the late 30s and 40s.

The pair are loosely based on such comedy duos as Laurel and Hardy; it becomes obvious that while Carter is the funny man onstage, Sharp has the best lines in real life. Carter's endless search for love and booze mostly finds him with a glass in his hand and a new dame on his arm. Sharp tries to stand clear of Rocky's chaos, to enlist for the Army, only to be told: "Make more funny movies. That's your part."

A gorgeous, rich love story about two guys in love with life and with humour, this splendid novel takes us on a rollercoaster ride through mid-century America. The time shifts which have Sharp looking back from old age, then returning to the present serve the story well, building up the complex layers of a complicated partnership which gradually unravels.

When Mose (Mike) Sharp tries to remember anything, the fat man always comes strolling into his brain, his hands in his pockets, whisky on his breath - "At which point you decide to write your memoirs, hoping to clear space for the future, however long that is."

Elizabeth McCracken writes wonderfully. She's original, witty, inventive and wise and a string of marvellous characters will stay with you long after the book is read. It's no surprise to learn that she was recently honoured as one of Granta's 20 Best American Writers Under 40. Her first novel, The Giant's House, was shortlisted for the National Book Award.

Niagara Falls All Over Again bears interesting comparisons with last year's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by New York writer Michael Chabon - both are stories set mid-century about male partnerships (Chabon's are not comedians but classic comic book artists), both are fast-moving, rollicking and will have you laughing, then crying, and while both bring us an America fat with overblown prejudice, nasty politics, obsessions and addictions, the lasting impression is of stories filled with compassion, tenderness and love.

I cannot recommend this "career-making" novel highly enough.

Jonathan Cape

$34.95