The Amusing Life
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The Beauty of Men Never Dies:
An Autobiographical Novel
by David Leddick
University of Wisconsin Press. 135 pages, $24.95

A FORMER ADMAN, an actor, a prolific writer, and—judging by the cover photo on his latest book—David Leddick is a remarkably well-preserved man in his eighties. He served in the Navy in World War II and danced at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1950s. These personal details figure in this “autobiographical novel,” a phrase that blurs the distinction between an author’s real life and an imagined story. Despite the ambiguity of the title, the voice that dominates the book seems to belong to Leddick rather than to a character he has created.