Customer Reviews

4% Famous: A Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found this book pretty disappointing (and I totally agree that a lot of these other "reviews" are very fishy). I was really prepared to like this book. It looked clever and funny. Out of a book like this, you don't expect much more than some juicy celebrity gossip and maybe some biting social commentary. I was disappointed that I didn't really find either here. The writer, to me, didn't seem very in touch with the scene she was covering.

The problem with covering people who are only "Four Percent Famous" in a tell-all book is that by the time the book is published a few years later, the people are probably Zero Percent famous and the gossip in the book is very dated and irrelevant. This book basically contains "gossip" that anyone in New York, and probably even people outside of New York, has already heard and is probably no longer interested in.

For example, the main focus of the book is a gossip about a character clearly meant to be Rocco diSpirito and how nervous he is about the opening of his restaurant. Other "juicy" items include a big story on the closure of Moomba coming as a surprise to its investors. I don't know too many people who still care about either of these things. Even if they did, I am sure they would want a little bit more in-depth and interesting gossip about these subjects. All the rest of the gossip in the book is similar to this - several years dated, not very juicy, and about people who most people would say are no longer that relevant on the New York scene.

To me, the book was so tedious and obviously dated (constant references to Beyonce's "Crazy Right Now" didn't help the dated feeling) that I almost couldn't even get through it. It just wasn't a great or juicy book. The extra star is for the one bit of juicy gossip I liked in this book - that Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen say "Prunes" when having their photo taken. That was funny. More stuff like that and this book would have been a fun read.

I feel bad writing this review, because I really wanted to like this book, but, especially in light of all the pretty "fishy" reviews here, I thought I had to warn people expecting something really juicy that this book didn't deliver. Better, snarkier, more relevant fictionalized accounts of celebrity with some more interesting gossip can be found in the books Chore Whore (funny LA A-list gossip) and Glamorama (Bret Easton Ellis's account of the NY scene is years old but still way more relevant than this).

I couldn't even get 2 chapters into the book. It is that boring to me! Might try and read some other time but for now, going back to the library it goes!

This novel is virtually unreadable. There is too much exposition, and of a sort that makes me think that every character (and every quip) is a thinly veiled and unimaginatively retold from the author's own life -- invented characters would not be nearly so dull or indistinct. It's unfortunate because there probably is a rich vein of story here, but the depths have been left undisturbed.

She's certainly been there, but lacks the skill bring her life to life on the page, and has little perspective or irony to offer in the telling. Thoroughly dissapointing.

I just finished this book and found it quite good. Not being a New Yorker, many of the blind references were lost on me, but this did not take away from the story itself. Schoeneman's behind the scenes narrative was both engaging, and a sarcastic poke at our societal obsession with celebrities. If you enjoy authors like Candace Bushnell, you'll probably enjoy this.

All the gossip items are blind, with no hints given, so it's not that interesting. The 1st chapter was very hard to follow, with no back stories on any of the characters, or even a heads up that there are 3 main characters, one of whom is the author (yet she writes in the 3rd person and calls herself Kate). I bought the book because I read the Marco chef character is based on the author's real relationship with TV chef Rocco DiSpirito, but there's not much to it in the book. Things don't heat up between them until 3/4 of the way thru the book, and the relationship is over before the end of the book. I was especially annoyed that the title "4 per cent famous" is actually a spin on Andy Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" and is thought up during a coke-fueled moment in a seedy club. Nothing in the book is original, or funny, or even that interesting! The book also repeats themes like going shopping after a drunk night out, sleeping over with some random guy and then needing to buy new clothes on the way to the office. This happens about 4 times in the book. Everytime a character takes the sleeping pill Ambien, the same phrase "waiting for that deafening silence" is repeated. This happens about 7 times in the book. The book really needs a good edit. I was also annoyed that the author never reveals in the book her own background or personality or how she got the job as a gossip columnist in NYC (which she tells her boss in the book she doesn't want because she aims to be a "serious journalist!" Then she writes this book dissing Marco/Rocco. Ugh.)

you know when you psych yourself out to really love a book and find parts that work only to be really disappointed by the rest? that's this book. a lot that feels forced along with some very entertaining bits.

Though I'm not from Manhattan, I found this book to be an absolutely addicting read. This fascinating look behind the scenes of celebrity gossip is non-stop fun and the most entertaining book I've read in a long time!

I just couldn't get into this book. I really wanted to like it, it just fell short for me.

"4% Famous" is a book I suspect I'd like and appreciate more were I more attuned to the NYC gossip scene. Given Deborah Schoeneman inside-ish background to these rarefied circles, it's a fair bet that much of what she spools out here in 269 quickly and eagerly consumed pages draws very deeply from actual goings on reported by New York magazine during her tenure there. But even without that level of knowledge, I thought "4% Famous" was a compelling and enlightening read. I say 'enlightening' because of the way it lays bare the gossip game, especially - as one of the professional reviews on this page notes - its 'quid pro quo' nature. Watching the horse-trading of items so each writer could protect their respective interests was eye-opening.

Another book on being a gossip columnist has found it's way to my cluttered desk. It's by Deborah Schoeneman and it's called 4% Famous. I was nervous even picking this one up because I adored Bridget Harrison's Tabloid Love so much that I feared I would take it out on poor innocent Schoeneman. Here's what I discovered. These books are totally and completely different. The only similiarity is that both authors work as gossip columnists. Little Debbie's book reads much more like a fresh, young and newly minted Jackie Collins. If anything, Jackie should start watching her back because younger, stronger women with their fingers placed more firmly on the pulse of the scandalous world of Hollywood Gossip are coming out of every crack in the sidewalk of New York City. And as you know, that is the city that never, ever sleeps. I'm sure Ms. Jackie Collins is getting her fair share of beauty rest and these energetic girls aren't wasting a minute.

So yes, Deborah's debut novel, 4% Famous is full of delicious gossip. It reads like one long blind item. You will find yourself desperately trying to figure out who the "Hollywood Prince" is or the "Literary Wunderkind". I didn't feel the same kinship with the main character as I did with Tabloid Love, but it is very readable and highly enjoyable. I'm already mad at myself for reading it a few weeks too early because this one would have been PERFECT for the beach!