At the centre of Music for Chameleons is ‘Handcarved Coffins’, a ‘nonfiction novel’ based on the brutal crimes of a real-life murderer in a small Midwestern town in America. Insights into the mind of a killer are offered, and also the obsession of the man bringing him to justice.
Also in this volume are six short stories and seven ‘conversational portraits’ including a touching one of Marilyn Monroe, the ‘beautiful child’ and a hilarious one of a dope-smoking cleaning lady doing her rounds in New York.
Paperback, 288pp
Penguin Books, 2001 (1980)
ISBN 9780141184616