Maybe I should take a little time off-not just from my formal fiddling with the epistemological puzzles of narration, but from fiction in general-time off from imaginary people and imaginary experiences. Maybe I should try something ‘conventional, ’ reportorial, nonfictional-get in touch, even if just obliquely, with the real world again. Purportedly culled from a cache of donated papers, K. B. Dixon’s new novel, Novel Ideas, is an unorthodox character study, a look at one writer’s life from the inside. A mosaic collection of excerpted letters and emails written by the author Stephen Styles to his close friend, the novelist Alan Dodd, the book follows Styles as he struggles to write a true crime story-a story that must, in the end, compete with friends, family, and other ideas (novel ideas) for his attention.