The Taos Truth Game »

Earl Ganz has taught writing at the University of Montana and the University of Utah and currently makes his home in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

This entertaining novel brings writer Myron Brinig, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and the avant garde of 1930s Taos back to center stage.

Publishers Weekly

A historically intriguing, fancifully packed debut by writing professor Ganz imagines the largely forgotten life and work of gay Jewish novelist Myron Brinig (1896-1991), who landed among the gossipy, insular set of Taos, N.Mex., artists during the mid-1930s. Brinig was a native of Butte, Mont., and author of Singermann and Wide Open Town, among numerous other briefly popular pioneer novels. Arriving at Taos, he is swept into the orbit of reigning dowager Mabel Dodge Luhan via the painter Cady Wells, who introduces him to Mabel and to all the big guns in their circle (painters Andrew Dasburg and Leon Gaspard; writers Frieda Lawrence, Witter Bynner and even Gertrude Stein) in a series of preposterous cameos. The plot, such as it is, concerns one name-dropping visit after another, especially chez bored socialite Mabel at her famous adobe dwelling, Big House, where she forces her guests to play the Truth Game, answering personal questions no matter how embarrassing. Ganz, having faithfully done his homework, tries to render true these inimitable personalities. His work, however, is notable for resurrecting novelist Brinig, who went on to write 21 novels, the last in 1958, before falling out of print. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.