Set in academe, in an unnamed city, The Tale Maker, by Mark Harris, features the careening careers and psyches, lusts and ambitions of two men - one named Rimrose, a brilliant student and teacher and widely respected author who manages to foul up everything until a final victory over his long-time antagonist named Kakapick, a voyeur of life, pitiful and yet able to win out over Rimrose in the absurdly bureaucratic and stratified atmosphere of The University - until, that is, life gets the better of him. . The Tale Maker is Mark Harris, author of the classic Bang the Drum Slowly tetralogy, at the top of his form, writing with a wit and bite and irony that sets him squarely alongside such as Saul Bellow, Phillip Roth and John Irving.