The Biographer's Tale
by A. S. Byatt
Knopf

The first few pages of A. S. Byatt's "The Biographer's Tale" are intellectually exhausting. In a whirl of references to Lacan, Freud, Foucault and Empedocles, Byatt introduces Phineas G. Nanson, a graduate student who decides to abandon his studies — "I have decided to give it up all up. I've decided I don't want to be a postmodern literary theorist," he announces to professor Ormerod Goode.

After declaring his intentions, Phineas elaborates by stating that he wants a safe, solid life, "a life full of things," a life "full of facts." A life, you suppose, where the recent death of Phineas's mother could not be considered a "postmodern uncertainty." And Goode has an idea for how to placate Phineas's newfound desire — biography. Pulling from his office shelf a copy of a biography of Sir Elmer Bole, Goode suggests that Phineas become the biographer of Bole's biographer, Scholes Destry-Scholes, setting Phineas off on a search for Destry-Scholes's life in the few clues and source materials he can find, leading him to employment in an eccentric travel agency and to two very different lovers — one a beautiful entomologist named for a Norse goddess, the other a shy and ethereal-looking descendant of Destry-Scholes.

If only the story were as simple as the plot summary suggests. A more postmodern exploration of postmodernism would be difficult to find. "The Biographer's Tale" is less a story about Phineas and Destry-Scholes than it is about the very broad theme of the nature of truth as revealed (or hidden) by the creators of writings and images that are then interpreted by theorists, academics, writers and artists. It is, very much so, about the layering that takes place between the creation and interpretation of every object and idea. What's true? Byatt is asking, and how do any of us ever know? Each of the characters in this novel can be seen trying to answer this question in their pursuits: Fulla, the entomologist helping Phineas translate certain of Destry-Scholes's notes, using empirical techniques to study the mating habits of beetles; Vera, the radiologist, creating delicate portraits of the interior spaces of the human body with an X-ray machine; Phineas copying the handwritten notes of the long-dead biographer to new index cards.

Even with such a weighty theme, "The Biographer's Tale" is not a dull read. It's not a quick read, either. It's a book that demands close attention. Its delight lies in the small details, where you can recognize and piece together the subtle threads and references, becoming almost as much a participant in the story as any of the characters. Forgery is one such plot thread, and there's a thrill while reading to catch yet another sly mention of it, whether in Phineas's asides or Destry-Scholes notes or the bizarre Puck's Girdle travel agency subplot.

Byatt is known for her heavily intellectual writing, which has led to some confusion in the past — "I am not an academic who happens to have written a novel. I am a novelist who happens to be quite good academically," she told a New York Times interviewer in 1991, following the publication of her Booker Prize-winning novel "Possession," about Victorian poets and illicit love. "The Biographer's Tale," an echoing, funhouse-like book crammed with big themes and obscure references, is not likely to dispel her academic reputation.

— Jessica Chapel (jnc at flakmag dot com)