Fable of a fat duck set to be bestseller

Vanessa Thorpe tips `Fup', a folksy tale from 1983, as the next cult book

It Is a tale of life and of loss, and of an overweight, paranormal duck. And, unlikely though it may seem, a folksy American animal fable called Fup, by a recluse called Jim Dodge, is the autumn title that the book trade believes will blow the competition out of the water.

The novel's faux-homespun style, plus its quirky design and distinctive illustrations by British artist Harry Horse, have marked it out as a bankable cult success. So much so that in this month's issue of trade journal The Bookseller, four members of a panel of bookstore buyers have independently selected the book as a sure-fire Christmas best-seller.

"It just sticks out, although at first I wondered if it was a mickey- take," says Jane Shaw, who buys paperbacks for the Scottish chain James Thin. "It is a bit laddish, but I am sure it will be a huge hit with the student community."

Others have taken the work much more seriously and are fanfaring Fup, which was written in 1983 by recluse and former gambler Jim Dodge, as a masterpiece of economy and wit. The author, with his post-modern, backwoods mysticism, has even been hailed as a modern Mark Twain.

"I came across the book a year and a half ago and there is just something special about it, something magical," says Kevin Williamson, the radical Scottish publisher whose underground magazine Rebel Inc. first brought the writings of Irvine Welsh to public attention. "Fup contains the whole history of America. There is so much written between the lines, although it is a straightforward story."

Dodge's dreamlike book is peppered with quaint bits of vocabulary like "antsy" and "ornery", and its simple narrative traces the lives of an orphan called Tiny, his ancient, whiskey-soaked granddaddy, a wild boar and an outsize duck called Fup.

"Ninety per cent of the book could be a child's allegory," says Mr Williamson. "But it is the rest of it which makes it so interesting."

Packed into this remaining 10 per cent are not only the grown-up themes of mortality and freedom, but also Granddaddy's fairly lewd turn of phrase. While Fup the duck herself is undeniably cute, readers cannot ignore the intentional Spoonerism of her name. Intermittent references to masturbation, oral sex and unconventional sexual positions are again not quite so suited to cot-side reading.

Mr Williamson was taken on last year by the Edinburgh publishing house Canongate and given the editorship of his own literary imprint. He immediately decided to bring out a new edition of Fup in Britain. "I just had a hunch," he says.

Matching fire with fire, the publishers sought out another recluse to illustrate the book. They came up with Englishman Harry Horse, a self- confessed loner who lives on a farm in the Midlands.

"I was really honoured to get this particular job," says Mr Horse, 37, who has worked most recently for the New Yorker. "I was knocked out by the book. I loved the idea of this 100-year-old man distilling this lethal elixir and his friendship with this duck. The writing is beautiful. It is American Gothic and the emotion at the end sneaks up on you."

Meanwhile, back at Dodge's secluded North Californian ranch, the author has skillfully avoided publicity, despite the increased popularity of his work in America. Fup is now a set text in many colleges and high schools and it sells a steady couple of thousand copies each year.

Interest in Dodge himself culminated this year in the feverish rumour that he and the cult writer Thomas Pynchon, author of V and Gravity's Rainbow, are one and the same person. They do share the same agent: Melanie Jackson, the woman who is married to Pynchon.

Mr Williamson has actually met Dodge, but even so, he cannot entirely discount the rumour because he has never met Pynchon.

"Jim doesn't really like to give a lot out about himself. I popped in on him in Northern California when I was driving through. He is a poet and has had quite a wild and varied background.

"We will be bringing out his early rock and roll book, Not Fade Away next. And, at the same time as Fup, we are publishing his new epic, Stone Junction, which is wonderful and has a foreword written by Thomas Pynchon."

For the final word on the identity of Pynchon/Dodge we have to go to Fup's author himself.

"I can categorically deny that I am Pynchon," Dodge, 52, told the Independent on Sunday from his home in the hills. "I only wish I was. He has an amazing imagination. It's the kind of gossip that comes out of America's mania for elevating people to the status of celebrity."

Dodge says he does not deliberately avoid contact with his public, it is just that he lives at the end of a 15-mile dirt track. "If people make it out here, I talk to them."

He says the popularity of his strange yarn has surprised him. "I had the idea when I was out digging postholes for a fence," he says. "It is not a connect-the-dots book, but I guess it is about the trauma of being bereft in the world and about where you find your consolation.

"I think in the end you find it through human beings who are willing to make contact with you and through the natural world. The natural world has always been a huge consolation to me. Even at the dumbest level of looking up at the night sky."

For Dodge, the new British edition of Fup is the best yet. Aren't the pictures great?" the author says. "They are almost exactly what I imagined. Horse is the only illustrator who has come so close."