A Con Man's Search for Self

The flimflamming hero of Darin Strauss's second novel is a compound of charismatic fraud and legit accomplishment. The true-life Kid McCoy, or "The Corkscrew Kid," undeniably won the welterweight crown from Tommy Ryan in 1896, was oft-married (including three times to the same woman), was convicted of murder in 1924, committed suicide in 1940, and was later elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. Strauss's McCoy is also a pugilist ladies' man as well as a jewel thief, con artist, and "the most married man in America." His raffish and lyrical adventures provide the novel's trajectory as McCoy cons and scraps and weds his way across the rich landscape of early 20th-century America.

How did Strauss seize on the real real McCoy as a subject—or taking-off point—for his story? "I'd once read about this man who was the inspiration—or one possible inspiration—for the term the real McCoy, and that, in fact, the guy wasn't really named McCoy. I didn't want to know too much more. I found a biography about him, but I didn't read the whole thing until I was almost done with my own book. That may seem hard to believe, but because I'm a novelist and not a biographer, I couldn't allow facts to get in the way of the story I wanted to tell. Eventually, because I invented so much of the story, I ended up changing my character's name. The 'real' real McCoy was named Norman Selby; mine's called Virgil Selby because, like the titular character of The Aeneid, my hero's on a quest for immortality."

Strauss's first novel, Chang and Eng, traced the story of history's first documented Siamese twins from their boyhood on the Mekong River to their sideshow life and celebrity in antebellum America, where they settled down after the Civil War with two broadminded sisters in North Carolina. The novel came out in 2000 and received generally excellent reviews while selling 35,000 copies in hardcover. Although both his books have had historical settings, Strauss does not think of himself as a strictly historical novelist. "I think it's coincidence that I've focused on historical fiction for my first two books," he says. "Like everybody, I'm attracted to substantial stories, and McCoy (like Chang and Eng) was patterned after someone who made his life incredibly interesting. That said, I think historical fiction frees a writer to tackle 'big' stories and to use language that's playful and even a bit extravagant. Maybe it's just me, but when I write about the way the world of today just lumbers along—this period of small men and of diminished vocabularies—I feel more constrained, less energetic."

The hero of The Real McCoy steals a dying man's identity in Indiana and learns his career-making corkscrew punch at the hands of a Chinese track worker in Utah; battered but victorious after winning his welterweight title at the Coney Island Athletic Club, he finds the love of his life at ringside. "Without trying to sound too grand," Strauss explains. "I wanted to write about identity and about the character of America. I didn't realize until halfway through the writing of this book that I was focused on the same concerns that I was when I wrote Chang and Eng. Both novels deal with the issue of personality—McCoy, like the Eng of my last book, has to grapple with questions about selfhood. Each of my protagonists was living both as one man and two people. I don't know why this interests me so much. Also, both books—especially this newer one—deal with strains in our nation's past that have shaped today's America."

Whether he sees himself as a full disciple or not, Strauss, 32, studied with two masters of the historical fiction form, E.L. Doctorow and Peter Carey, while in the writing program at New York University. He currently lives in Brooklyn and recently sold his own script of Chang and Eng to Disney. "It was fun writing the screenplay, which I think improves on the book in certain ways. It streamlines the narrative and cuts out any repetition. Of course, a screenwriter pines for the chance to use language to paint pictures with style." As for a new project, Strauss is working on some short stories and "thinking about my next book, but I haven't hit on anything yet." Whatever it is, it will involve a grand story out in the fascinating world, since, as Strauss admits without shame, "I can't ever write anything that's at all autobiographical."