A Complete Fiction

An accusation of copyright infringement and questions about who owns a story drive this overwrought effort from Maizes (Other People’s Pets). Struggling novelist P.J. Larkin sets the literary world ablaze when she takes to a Twitter-like platform called Crave and calls out small-press editor George Dunn for allegedly stealing her work. Each of them have written a novel set in Washington, D.C., about a lowly staffer’s sexual assault by a powerful politician. Adding ammunition to P.J.’s claim is that George, who has just sold his book to a major publisher for a big advance, previously rejected P.J.’s manuscript at his own press. It seems like an open-and-shut case—until it’s revealed that George’s novel is based on his own experiences, while P.J.’s draws from something that happened to her sister. If there is a villain in Maizes’s ambiguous drama, it’s Crave, where P.J.’s complaint unleashes a cancel-hungry mob that’s hell-bent on ending George’s career before it turns on P.J. While Maizes strives for nuance in both her characters and the premise, the stakes sometimes feel out of proportion, as when the #cancelGeorgeDunn campaign sparks a crowded demonstration covered by TV news outlets. In the end, the provocative material is undermined by too much investment in the fantasy of authorial relevance. (Nov.)