"Who is Arthur Ziff? One of our greatest living writers or a brilliant literary trickster? Is he a true master or a clever tactician who subtly seduces critics and the reading public alike? It is narrator Danny Levitan's job to learn who Ziff really is in this novel about the writing life.".

"Serious literature and sensational publishing collide when Levitan, once a well-known novelist now reduced to obscurity, is offered a lucrative advance to write a biography of Ziff. The scourge of myriad Jewish-American readers and a titan among the world's literary heavyweights, Ziff has always plotted his books and his career with predatory efficiency. For years he has also shared secrets, manuscripts, and sexual escapades with his longtime friend Danny.

But, old friendships aside, Ziff is disturbed with the prospect of this biography by his old pal, and determined to thwart it by persuasion, cajolery, seduction, and outright threat."--BOOK JACKET.