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Bandbox by Thomas Mallon

Bandbox is the title of a successful men's magazine in 1928 at the height of the Jazz Age. It's been driven to popularity by a force of will by its editor, Jehoshaphat Harris, and his strange and off-kilter staff. Harris, however, has lost his protege editor to a new magazine which is overtaking his in popularity, although by nefarious means. The comic adventures of the "Bandbox" staff to fend off the new upstart magazine and restore themselves as the connoisseurs of hipness in the public eye leads to a madcap romp featuring sabotage, kidnapping, and flights of fancy. Thomas Mallon has captured the gaudiness and frenetic page of the age, and Bandbox has received positive reviews. The New York Times says, "We need our escapes, our little places of pause. Mallon's good-humored, romping scenes offer just that. They charm us into accepting the old illusions -- that the good guys get the girls, hatchets get buried and everything at last comes out right."