Mac's Problem -- Enrique Vila-Matas

Any new book by Vila-Matas is a unique kind of joy: you know you’ll be getting a form-bending investigation into writer’s-life conundrums, one that is funny, maddening, and exquisitely crafted; obviously of a piece with his past work and yet indisputably different each time out. This is quintessential Vila-Matas and maybe, somehow, his best book yet. An old man who newly has time on his hands decides to indulge his long-festering urge to write, and what better way than to bastardize an old, little-liked book by a local literary star, chapter by chapter? Chaos spectacularly ensues, and the resulting novel is a pleasurably head-scratching riddle like nothing else.