Et Tu, Babe

August 31, 1992
Leyner follows up the critical success of My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist with an extravagant, kaleidoscopic satire based on the premise that his first novel's great success and his irresistible, steroid-enhanced physique have catapulted him to international (nay, intergalactic) stardom. The result is a wildly uneven but often hilarious collage of parodies and satirical bits that recall artists as diverse as Lenny Bruce, Rabelais, William Burroughs and Hieronymous Bosch. Leyner's obsession with body parts and secretions will undoubtedly appall many readers, and his apparently perpetual state of priapic arousal wears thin after the first 50 pages. But his relentless assault on the ways in which celebrity now drives the literary world and his sly digs at Tom Clancy-type technothrillers, the enfant terrible posturings of literary Brat Packers, and American Psycho -style flaunting of brand names are ingenious and on target. Profoundly--and delightfully--weird, Leyner's latest will certainly not appeal to all tastes, but it's hard to hate a novel whose cast of characters includes William Carlos Williams, Justice Clarence Thomas and Carl Sagan.