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Publishers Weekly

Reiner is up to his usual witty tricks with his character Nat Noland, a California writer, deep into his fifth novel, an account of Genesis focusing on Cain and Abel. Nat's wife, Glennie, overhears his voice in conversations with himself and becomes alarmed. She contacts the Viennese psychiatrist Dr. Frucht, who wants to delve into Nat's past and investigate recurring dreams and the significance of his not knowing his birth parents. Nat also encounters Dr. Gertrude Trampleasure, who claims he looks like her childhood boyfriend Buddy Keebler. How can this be? Nat's struggle to learn about himself parallels his character's concerns. Reiner's voice assures listeners of a companionable journey-his pace is leisurely, grave when necessary, and each character comes vividly alive with subtle individual adjustments. The fun begins immediately when the first thing heard is lofty music indicating something serious to come. Reiner is extremely skilled at poking fun at Southern California creative and cultural life and the eternal quest for identity and self-verification. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 19). (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Comedian, actor, and film director Reiner (My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir), cocreator (with Mel Brooks) of the 2000 Year Old Man comedy routine, is one of the funniest writers in America. Best known for television and movie scripts, Reiner also has six adult and two children's books to his credit. In NNNNN, he tells the story of Nat Noland, a hack author writing his own version of Genesis in which Cain isn't a murderer, just a guy looking for a girlfriend. When Nat starts talking to himself, he goes to see a psychiatrist named Dr. Frucht. Then he runs into the beautiful empathologist Gertrude Trampleasure, which leads to some amazing discoveries about his own genesis. The novella reads like a television movie (with the F word and sex put back into it-wink, wink, nudge, nudge) that cuts straight to the punch lines. Essentially, it's a sitcom miniseries on paper, rated R for language and sexual allusions. Funny, but it could have been funnier-maybe Reiner should have enlisted Brooks's help on this one, too. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/05; this is Reiner's first novel in more than ten years.-Ed.]-Ken St. Andre, Phoenix P.L. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

A writer struggles with a unique case of multiple-personality disorder in this farce, the first novel in over a decade from veteran screenwriter, director and actor Reiner (All Kinds of Love, 1993). Middle-aged author Nat Noland doesn't just talk to himself-he has extended, vociferous debates with himself, and that has understandably begun to trouble his wife, Glennie. That problem, combined with the fact that his fifth novel is turning into a blasphemous rewrite of Genesis, prompts him to call in a psychiatrist, Dr. Frucht, for some mental repair work. (Noland dubs each novel-in-progress "N," making his fifth novel "NNNNN.") The "empathologist" across the hall from Frucht, Dr. Gertrude Trampleasure, further upends Noland's world when she tells him he looks remarkably like the man who broke her heart when she was a schoolgirl. Investigating further, Noland learns that he is, in fact, a triplet. His father, a greedy and detestable orphanage owner, seduced a traveling showgirl and convinced her to give the baby up for adoption; when she balked shortly before going into labor, he ran her car off the road, killing her, then performed a c-section to save the infants, which he sold separately to wealthy clients. At first glance, that's not exactly fertile territory for a breezy comic novel, but Reiner has the right idea-the setup anchors the story and lends some legitimacy to the loopy subplots that follow (cases of mistaken identity are rampant). The final plot twist threatens to make the tale feel completely untenable, but like any self-respecting farce author, Reiner capably ties the various plot points together. A slim bit of dialogue-heavy, lightweight fare that strains believability butgets a surprising amount of mileage out of its absurd premise and characters.