MAKING THE GHOST DANCE, by David Kranes, Signature, 217 pages, $21.95, softcover.

"Making the Ghost Dance" is the delightful, intriguing story of an 11-year-old boy whose doctor-father brings him a silk handkerchief, a wooden egg, a red bag, a black stick and a deck of cards.

Growing up in Boston, young Peck quickly finds his niche in the new and exciting world of magic. He reads about it, starts doing tricks to entertain others and learns to work a crowd. By the time he reaches his 12th birthday, he is making money. But his school grades take a dive.

But he is ecstatic with his new-found power. He revels in magic shows and in his growing reputation. Using his silk handkerchief, he makes "a ghost dance in mid-air."

In a life rooted in symbolism, he finds he can make many things appear and disappear.

He dates an attractive girl named Jessica who loves his magic, but she won't let him kiss her. Surprised, he falls into comfortable conversation, and even though he doesn't marry her, Jessica pops up in his life over and over.

With pressure from his father, he attends Bard College in New York, but his heart is not in it. Soon, he heads for New York City (without telling his dad) and a life in entertainment.

From then on, family relations are tenuous and his parents lose confidence in him. Even with his accelerating success in show business, he never really recovers their respect. But he lives the life of his own choice, and he does it with flair.

In a compact book, David Kranes, a truly gifted writer who has skillfully borrowed some of the magic from his own adolescence, follows Peck into adulthood and through the rest of his life. This is a novel told as biography, and it works beautifully.

Kranes' total command over his words allows him to work his own magic with the story. Despite Peck's theatrical successes, he finds that his own life is filled with appearances and disappearances. Tragedy and death follow, until Jessica finally tells him that he is destined to be the last one standing.

Peck marries Victoria, has two children who grow up talented and smart, but all of it seems ephemeral. He acts in television and films, and becomes rich and famous. He has the world by the tail . . . but it slips out of his hands.

Still, the process is filled with rich discovery as Kranes wraps his story in smart dialogue and brilliant description, which qualifies him as a master of the written word.

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com