What a Piece of Work I Am

Peter Leroy

In the fifth volume of his memoirs, Peter Leroy, working on the principle of the panopticon, constructs a plausible life for Ariane Lodkochnikov, the sultry older sister of his imaginary childhood friend, the sly maker of her own self and her own myth.

Clam-bar waitress, avant-garde actress, small-town bad girl, boyhood crush, and figment of the imagination of Peter Leroy, Ariane is the unreliable narrator of her own life. With Peter listening raptly, she weaves a tale of voyages—some erotic, some poignant, some hilariously disastrous—that chronicle a woman’s quest to escape her reputation. What a Piece of Work I Am is an echo-chamber of myth and a meditation on the human urge to tell and hear stories.

“Poignant, dizzying . . . a lip-smacking conceit . . . a heroine as complex as the narrative.”
Karen Karbo, The New York Times Book Review

“Kraft cooks up another treat.”
Timothy Hunter, Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A prism of overlapping narrative frames.”
Publishers Weekly

“A wild, fascinating tale.”
Mark Ciabattari, Washington Post Book World

“Conveys a sense of sheer play.”
The New Yorker

“It is easy to enter the spirit of oddly persuasive illusion.”
Michael Upchurch, San Francisco Chronicle

“Sometimes real, sometimes imaginary, and always diverting.”
Mark Munroe Dion, Kansas City Star

“We are—as we have come to expect from Eric Kraft—in the hands of a master.”
Michael Z. Jody, The East Hampton Star

“One of the most engaging creations to emerge from Kraft's imagination.”
Nicholas A. Basbanes, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette

“A flight of deeply imagined fancy.”
Double Dealer Redux
(Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society, New Orleans)

“Joyful and chastening . . . playful . . . like a mirror held to a mirror.”
Frederic Koeppel, Memphis Commercial Appeal