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"F. Scott Fitzgerald meets Wes Anderson" (The Village Voice) in this inventive and witty debut about a young man’s quest to become a writer and the misadventures in life and love that take him around the globe—from the author of Why We Came to the City
As early as he can remember, the narrator of this remarkable novel has wanted to become a writer. From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, Kristopher Jansma’s hopelessly unreliable—yet hopelessly earnest—narrator will be haunted by the success of his greatest friend and literary rival, the brilliant Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Evelyn, the green-eyed girl who got away. A profound exploration of the nature of truth and storytelling, this delightful picaresque tale heralds Jansma as a bold, new American voice.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
- Sales Rank: #246750 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-03-21
- Released on: 2013-03-21
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Online columnist Jansma performs a veritable circus act here, cramming his first novel with literary allusions until its like a small car stuffed with clowns, who then first burst forth to cavort and turn balloons into poodles. This canny, seductive, and utterly transfixing tale about the magic of storytelling and the misery of writing is told by an itinerant, chameleonic writer who calls himself Nobody. The fatherless son of a flight attendant, he relies on and cares for his rich, gay, and unstable best friend, who turns out to be a truly gifted novelist, and falls hopelessly in love with an actress so beautiful that princes propose marriage. Like a magician pulling a seemingly endless string of colorful scarves from a hat, Jansma streams stories-within-stories-within-stories, each a diabolically clever homage. As Nobody juggles false identities and survives near-catastrophes in New York, Las Vegas, Iceland, Luxembourg, Dubai, Ghana, and Sri Lanka, readers will detect riffs on Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Truman Capote, Bob Dylan, Tolstoy, Salinger, Borges, Kipling, and many more. To add to the droll, romantic, and boldly creative sorcery of it all, Jansma riffs on plagiarism as “the new American art form” and ponders the paradoxes of literary fame. A first novel with the strength and agility of a great cat leaping through rings of fire. --Donna Seaman
Review
"At times, the novel is a string of short stories; at others, it is a set of matroyshka dolls, containing, at one point, a novel within a short story wihthin a novella within a novel. ...Jansma approaches them with wry humor and a steady hand. The narrator's games never fail to entertain, even if he is constantly changing the rules."
--The New Yorker
“[A] tricky picaresque thick with literary allusion from Fitzgerald to Amis…[A] clever, tightly paced novel of ever-upping stakes.”
—Vogue.com
"Playfully weird...I'd call this book "postmodern," but that makes it sound like it's not as pleasurable to read as it is."—Meg Wolitzer, author of the New York Times bestselling The Interestings on NPR.com
“Though one might recognize bits of Dickens, Fitzgerald or Hemingway, this is simply a good case of stealing from geniuses. It’s a breathless work the celebrates the literary tradition, while making a strong case that its author belongs on the shelf beside his forebears.”
—Time Out New York (5 Stars)
“Couched in Jansma’s wildly recursive funhouse of a novel is a coming-of-age story…filled with clever literary allusions and insider jokes…[T]here’s plenty to relish in this noteworthy debut.”
—Heller McAlpin for NPR.org
“F. Scott Fitzgerald meets Wes Anderson…[T]he novel strikes a cord on questions of authenticity, love, and ambition, and it reminds us that life is often out of our control, even if we’re writing it down.”
—The Village Voice
“One of the best books of the year.”
—Jeff Glor for CBS Author Talk
“[Jansma is] a writer of extreme promise, who seems to belong to an older generation.”
—Electric Literature “Recommended Reading”
“[A] slippery and energetic debut novel…rapid in pace, the language and details tightly controlled…It’s tremendous fun, this book.”
—San Francisco Journal of Books
“[T]his mind-blowing spiral of a book will also appeal to anyone who enjoys their fiction as playful as it is intriguing.”
—Book Reporter
“The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards’ intricate narrative game and its carbon-burning escapades add up to a novel that is wise about identity and aspiration, competitive storytelling, romantic obsession and the assertion that ‘all these stories are true, only somewhere else.’”
—Shelf Awareness
“Captivating…[A] smart, searching debut about art and identity.”
—Library Journal
“[A] canny, seductive, and utterly transfixing tale about the magic of storytelling
and the misery of writing…Like a magician pulling a seemingly endless string of colorful scarves from a hat, Jansma streams stories-within-stories-within-stories, each a diabolically clever homage… Readers will detect riffs on Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Truman Capote, Bob Dylan, Tolstoy, Salinger, Borges, Kipling, and many more…A first novel with the strength and agility of a great cat leaping through rings of fire.”
—Booklist (Starred)
“[An] arresting debut…Jansma’s characters deftly explore the blurred lines between fact and fiction, discovering the shades of truth that lie in between.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Absorbing...Jansma [is] a writer to watch.”
—Library Journal (2013 Fiction Preview)
“A terrifically fun book that’s a little bit Calvino, a little bit Jennifer Egan, and a little bit the inside of every young artist that ever was. Concerned with the nature of storytelling, art, fallacy, and f**king up, and told as only a witty wordsmith can, we’re pretty sure it’ll be one of your favorites in the new year.”
—Flavorwire / Named one of their “50 Up-and-Coming New York Culture Makers to Watch in 2013”
“THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS is my new exhibit A for the defense of literary fiction. A great read—a must read. Kristopher Jansma is more than the real-deal. He's made himself, with this book, essential.”
—Darin Strauss, author of More Than It Hurts You
“Light and airy, THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS is a funhouse of a novel about the outsized ambitions of authors and the sneaky power of storytelling. Kristopher Jansma's debut is a whimsical round-the-world tour that recalls Calvino, Millhauser and The Confidence Man.”
—Stewart O’Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster
“Emblematic of its many delightful complexities, the writer-as-narrator of this exciting debut novel brings to mind both Holden Caufield and Tom Ripley. This is a coming of age novel, albeit not an especially tender one; rather it is infused with wicked satire on the pursuits of wealth, fame and love. As if he were running the literary equivalent of a game of 3-card Monte, Jansma's protagonist artfully charms and deceives his friends and readers as a means to revealing what is true. THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS is a remarkably smart novel and it's great fun, too.”
—Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route
“Kristopher Jansma is a brilliant writer of energetic, original, intelligent, skillful and highly imaginative and hysterically funny fiction. Few writers of any age succeed in the chances he took with THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS. That he does so with such finesse, ease and maturity is astounding.”
—Stephen Dixon, author of What Is All This?
“Lies are as essential to our lives as truth, time, and love. With THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS, Kristopher Jansma escorts us through a carnival funhouse of literary mirrors where truth and lies are so delightfully melded that we, like the
characters themselves, don’t care to distinguish between them. The result is a dynamic, imaginative adventure featuring a trio of characters that are constantly shifting, yet instantly recognizable, as endearing as they are flawed. But the true leopards of
Jansma’s novel may be the deep questions crouching deftly within its pages. I, for one, may never regard my own reflection with quite the same certainty again."
—Kenneth Slawenski, author of J.D. Salinger: A Life
“The brilliance of this novel slays me! With an extravagance of wit and grace, Kristopher Jansma has masterfully composed a chimerical, matroshka doll of a story as gripping as it is inventive, as moving as it is hilarious, populated with fascinating,
singular characters about whom you long to know more and more and more. (Even the extras are drawn in pitch-perfect detail.) It reminded me of so many favorite novels, from David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten to Gary Shteyngart’s The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, and yet it’s so deeply original that all comparisons fall out the window. This is the most fresh and exciting novel I’ve read in ages.”
—Joanna Smith Rakoff, author of A Fortunate Age
“Behold THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS: an eloquent, witty, and inventive debut novel about a promising young writer's persistent quest to reinvent himself. Kristopher Jansma masterfully explores the ways in which we lie in order to
grasp the most inexplicable truths in art, life, and love. The protagonist is a trickster-artist and con artist alike; he is Houdini,Tom Ripley and Hemingway rolled into one. But despite his web of lies, we can't help but root for him all the way to the end. THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS is a tour de force--a nest of Russian dolls, with stories within stories, each tale bringing us a little closer to some glimmer of the truth."
—Mira Bartok, author of The Memory Palace, winner of the National Book Critic's Circle Award
“Clever, smart and beautifully written, THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS is not only a story about storytelling but also a true celebration of the art. At times hilarious and heart-wrenching, Jansma has managed to produce a mind-bending and utterly unforgettable book.”
—Andrew Porter, author of The Theory of Light and Matter
"Serious fun. What romantic comedy used to be in the time of Shakespeare. Not a breath of fresh air, but a gale."
--Martin Cruz Smith, author of Three Stations
About the Author
Kristopher Jansma is a lecturer at Manhattanville College and SUNY Purchase and writes a monthly column for Electric Literature’s blog The Outlet. He was selected as a finalist for BOMB Magazine’s 2011 fiction contest, and his work has appeared in the Blue Mesa Review. He lives with his wife in New York City.
Most helpful customer reviews
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
Not all the leopards are metaphorical...
By Susan Tunis
Look, I won't claim there aren't disappointments, but after decades of selecting books for myself, I've gotten pretty good at guessing what I'm going to like. And from the first time I heard even the briefest description of The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, it was high on my must-read list. I mean, seriously, the title alone--somehow it just spoke to me. And I wasn't disappointed.
But the odd thing is, when I read the jacket copy, the part that I really honed in on was about the rivalry between the two writers. And while certainly that is an element of the novel's plot (such as it is), that's not the part that I should have been paying attention to. No, it was phrases like "search for identity," "web of lies," and "exploration of the nature of truth and storytelling" that are really at the crux of Kristopher Jansma's exciting debut novel.
Let's back up... There have been some fantastic novels that blurred the lines between fact and fiction through a variety of narrative devices. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel opened the novel in direct address to readers, eventually becoming the character of The Writer. And when The Bridges of Madison County was published a few decades ago, so many readers wrote to the National Geographic believing the tale was true that they made a museum exhibit of the correspondence. I digress, but the opening of The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards brought these examples to mind, because the first page after the table of contents says this: "If you believe that you are the author of this book, please contact Haslett & Grouse Publishers (New York, New York) at your first convenience."
Interesting. We move on, but that opening note is never quite forgotten.
And this tale begins, again, in direct address to readers in the form of an author's note. It launches, "I've lost every book I've ever written." And the narrator tells the tale of that first loss. You will learn of others along the way. The last line, incidentally, of that author's note is this: "These stories all are true, but only somewhere else." And this coming after not one, not two, but three separate epigraphs on the nature of truth. Interesting.
The novel's first-person narrator seems earnest enough, but be prepared for sleight of hand--or whatever the literary equivalent might be. The storytelling here is unconventional, it's meta-fictional, it's challenging, it's non-linear, it's literary, and, oh yes, it is always interesting. Jansma's characters are... Well, to be honest, they're not all that likable when you get right down to it, but they're well-drawn enough for familiarity to breed contempt. (And in the scheme of unlikable characters, these ones are not so unpleasant as to put you off from following their journey.) You'll note that I did not describe them as "believable," because there's a heightened quality about the trio at the center of the tale, and the circumstances they find themselves in, as they chase and/or flee each other around the globe. Jansma isn't trying to replicate reality. There is artifice throughout, and it's very intentional.
His writing is fantastic! It's read-aloud, eminently quotable, just a pleasure to absorb. Everything about this novel is stylish, stylized, and sophisticated. It's also very funny. It's gonzo, romantic, clever, and the sort of book to remind readers and writers both why they do what they do. In short, this is an exhilarating debut novel. My instincts were right on this time. Score one for me.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
When you read a book about someone who constantly reinvents reality, you don't always know what to believe...
By Larry Hoffer
"These stories are all true, but only somewhere else."
So says the narrator of Kristopher Jansma's appealing yet frustrating novel-in-stories, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards. From an early age, he wanted to be a writer, and he simply can't stop reinventing himself and the situations around him. As a teenager in North Carolina, he introduces himself as a character in a Wilkie Collins novel when pressed into service escorting a girl he is enamored with to her debutante ball. In college in the Berkshires, he meets the eccentric and talented Julian McGann, a flamboyant writer whose skill inspires rivalry and inspiration--Julian's career reaches great heights, while the narrator finds himself benefiting only when Julian's mania gets the best of him.
But in addition to the inspiration Julian provides, he also introduces the narrator to the beautiful Evelyn, a world-weary actress with whom he becomes quickly enamored. Evelyn is certainly fond of the narrator, but enjoys the control she has over him, and the two have an on-again, off-again relationship for years. When Evelyn finally decides to get married, the behavior of Julian and the narrator lead to the trio having a falling out that lasts for more than 10 years.
That's where the book falls off the rails, in my opinion. Suddenly the narrator is impersonating a college professor, telling tales to a newlywed couple in Dubai, writing papers for college students in Sri Lanka, searching for his Salinger-esque friend in Ghana and at a writer's retreat in Iceland, and tracking his one true love (or is she?) in Luxembourg. Julian McGann is now inexplicably called Jeffrey Oakes, and Evelyn's wedding to an Indian scientist somehow is transmogrified into a wedding with a prince from Luxembourg. And the conclusion, in the same airport where the book began, is a little magical but a little perplexing.
I think Jansma is a terrific writer, and I loved the first half of the book. The relationships between the characters, the adventures they found themselves in, the rivalry between writers, all were compelling and enjoyable. But when you have a main character who is more enamored with reinventing the truth at every turn, you don't know what to believe, or when what you're reading will suddenly turn into something else. I kept waiting for some sort of explanation about which parts were true--was his friend's name Julian or Jeffrey? Who did Evelyn marry? But the narrator, and the book, were mum on these details.
I love books that leave you guessing, and I love those that challenge the truth, but I struggled with this book because it never tied things up for me. Perhaps it was never meant to. But in the end, I thought this was a book with tremendous potential that sadly (and somewhat frustratingly) was never realized.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Truth versus fiction in the life of a writer
By TChris
Whether The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is a novel (as the title advertises) or ten connected short stories (plus versions of a preface and epilog) isn't entirely clear -- the structure (each story has its own title and is complete within itself) and the changing names of the characters suggest the latter, while the shared narrator, the unitary themes, and a wristwatch that appears in nearly every story imply the former -- but I don't think it matters. Kristopher Jansma plays with form in a way that reminds us he's writing about creators of fiction, inventers who shape and reshape reality to suit their own ends.
Although Jansma pokes fun at the writer's life and at literary criticism, his stories are serious dissections of recurring characters at various stages of their lives. The stories are narrated by a writer who rarely writes, and who has lost every book he's ever written. The first story describes a seminal event in the narrator's young life, one to which he often returns in subsequent stories, although a key detail eventually changes. What begins as a cornball tale of class-defying love becomes an insightful story about fleeting moments and the impact they make on our lives. The next four stories revolve around the narrator's friendship with two other characters. The narrator meets Julian in Freshman English and they bond over their mutual love of writing. Julian eventually finds success that eludes the narrator. Julian's friend, a beautiful girl who becomes a successful actress, also bonds with the narrator, although not in the way the narrator would like.
Jansma uses those friendships to explore the role of a writer. One story asks how much literal truth a writer should reveal in a work of fiction -- a vexing question that results from his decision to base a story upon his relationship with the actress. Another poses the flip side of that question: how does a writer, intent upon the creation of illusion, avoid hiding from the truth? One story, purportedly the only story the narrator managed to get published, casts the narrator as a character in his own fiction. The fifth story, in which the narrator contemplates ruining the actress' wedding, asks whether he is motivated by love or by the desire to control her like a character in a story.
If the first five stories (collected under the subtitle "What Was Lost") highlight the hope, promise, and angst of youth, the second five (subtitled "What Was Found") display the down slope of life's arc. The narrator is now a failed writer who has managed to find a job teaching at a second-rate university by assuming his more successful friend's identity -- the latest in a series of lies the narrator tells about his name. The narrator's approach to teaching journalism is to teach the art of writing fiction -- the art of lying. By arguing against the notion that art contains truth, he hopes to convince himself of the opposite. Yet whether the narrator is capable of discerning the difference between truth and fiction -- whether, in the end, there is a difference -- is one of the book's central questions.
The narrator moves from his teaching job to ghostwriting term papers to writing the unauthorized biography of his successful friend, all the while making faltering steps to write meaningful fiction of his own. His friend (Julian of the earlier stories becomes Jeffrey in the later ones) has disappeared (doing "a full-Salinger") after producing a single novel, a work of genius that is both popular and critically acclaimed. As he explores his friend's life, the narrator begins to wonder whether he is his friend's doppelgänger, but the reader suspects that the friend is the narrator's alter ego (or vice versa).
The narrator visits Africa and Iceland in stories eight and nine, but the last story takes place in Luxembourg, a country that excites no expectations and therefore deprives the characters of the pleasure of feeling let down. Perhaps that is a metaphor for the narrator's life -- full of expectations and disappointment -- but it might be Luxembourg's national motto that sums him up: "We wish to remain what we are." For much of the book, the narrator is in motion, but he isn't moving forward, while his friend is often moving in reverse. The last story asks whether that's something they can change -- whether they can find themselves.
Viewed individually, Jansma's stories are fun and insightful and occasionally brilliant. Viewed collectively, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards has the heft of a serious novel, one that builds characters word by word until they become whole, then knocks them apart and rebuilds them -- as does life. It is one of the best fictional explorations of what it means to be a writer that I've encountered.
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