SINATRALAND

A debut novel by critic and showbiz historian Kashner (Hollywood Kryptonite, 1996) that portrays the inner life of a demented Frank Sinatra fan. Everyone knows that the really big stars never read their own fan mail, but that hasn—t stopped a soul from writing. Certainly it hasn—t stopped “Finkie” Finklestein, a New Jersey sales rep for Weiss & Rifkind window shades, from keeping up a regular—if entirely one-sided—correspondence with Sinatra for more than 20 years. Not content simply to flatter his idol (—Believe you me, Frank, Marriage on the Rocks has a lot going for it—), Finkie keeps him posted on how business is these days (—Levelor Blinds . . . is a tide that rises all Finklestein boats—), and what’s up on the home front in Fort Lee. A husband and father—who names his daughter Nancy Ava—Finkie’s not quite a skirt-chaser on the level with Old Blue Eyes himself, but he’s had his share of trouble, including a nasty divorce and a second marriage that ends in utter disaster. Frank is the still point of his turning world. So, naturally, when Finkie hears that Sinatra is going to retire, he makes it down to the Music Center for the farewell concert and tries to pay his respects in person by making a trip backstage after the performance. That’s when the miracle strikes: Sinatra’s bodyguards catch Finkie in the wings and beat him to a bloody pulp: “Before the night of June 14, 1971, I had spent over twenty years trying to come up with ways to meet you by accident,” he says. Sinatra, shaken by the potential bad publicity, pursues Finkie—and offers him a job on his entourage to keep him from pressing charges. Will Finkie ever wise up? O ye of little faith! He couldn—t have written a happier ending himself. A weirdly affecting portrait of innocence verging on monomania.