One of America's most interesting writers, Padget Powell, has brought out a new book, "You & I." But so far it has been released only in England, where his most enthusiastic readers are to be found. Is the title a nod to another innovative American writer, Nicholson Baker, whose first venture into the chronicle form was entitled "U and I: A True Story" and concerned his unhealthy fixation on his writing idol, John Updike? Powell's new work apparently is a run-on dialogue between two old codgers, and though called a novel it is described as by no means a conventional one. Of course, that probably means that it is labeled a novel only for convenience. Certainly, Powell's previous work, "The Interrogative Mood," was more chronicle than novel, consisting entirely of questions that were creative enough but in which it was hard to detect any out-and-out fiction-making. A good interview with Powell, in which he explains how he evolved from a "cuddly" realist into the sort of writer he is, can be found at the Guardian.
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