Questioning Authenticity — And Reality — In 'The Made-Up Man'
Joseph Scapellato's new novel mashes up noir and philosophy in a multi-layered story about an aimless young man who gets caught up in his uncle's strange and possibly dangerous performance art.
Joseph Scapellato's The Made-Up Man reminds me of a bacon-topped doughnut — a mixture of incongruent elements that somehow work well together. And like that sweet treat, Scapellato's blend of existential noir, absurdist humor, literary fiction, and surreal exploration of performance art merges into something special.
Stanley is living an in-between moment. He is between jobs, recently quit his archeology studies, and he and his girlfriend are taking a break. When she goes to Prague
