New Yorker editor and McSweeney's contributor Ben Greenman reshapes Russian literature's most celebrated stories around America's most popular pop culture icons, probing the deep complexities of Anton Chekov (not to mention those of Cruise or Kardashian). Thought-provoking and funny, these wryly re-imagined tales will be sure-fire favorites for every kind of reader, whether your favorite escapes are celebrity memoirs like L.A. Candy and The Truth about Diamonds, re-conceived classics like Wicked, literary parodies like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, or masterpieces of fiction from authors like Tolstoy, Pushkin and Chekhov himself.
Celebrity Chekhov (P.S.)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A high-concept experiment in surreal comedy, that’s also an act of devotion regarding the persistent power of literature.” (L Magazine )
“Nothing short of brilliant. . . . you can plant it proudly on your bookshelf.” (Daily Candy )
“Ben Greenman’s Celebrity Chekhov might be the first literary mashup that actually adds to our understanding of the original work.” (The Very Short List )
“Nothing short of brilliant. . . . you can plant it proudly on your bookshelf.” (Daily Candy )
“Ben Greenman’s Celebrity Chekhov might be the first literary mashup that actually adds to our understanding of the original work.” (The Very Short List )
From the Back Cover
The immortal stories of Anton Chekhov have long entranced readers with their insights into the universal truths of human behavior . . . but you've never read them quite like this.Q: What do Tiger, Paris, Lindsay, Alec, and Oprah have in common with the enduring characters of Anton Chekhov?
A: Love, loss, pride, yearning, heartbreak, renewal, transcendence: the very stuff of life.
- Former friends Nicole and Paris exchange prickly pleasantries in "Tall and Short."
- Talk-show host Dave narrowly averts another potential domestic crisis in "A Transgression."
- Reality star Kim shares her newfound notoriety with Khloe and Kourtney in "Joy."
In a witty, graceful, and revelatory feat of literary reinvention, acclaimed novelist and humorist Ben Greenman takes nineteen of Chekhov's greatest stories and recasts them with some of the best-known luminaries of our time—with eye-opening, and oddly ennobling, results.
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More About the Author
Ben Greenman is an editor at The New Yorker and the author of the underground indie hits Please Step Back, Superbad, and A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both. His short fiction and music criticism has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Paris Review, and he writes a regular comedy column for McSweeney's. He lives in Brooklyn.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By The Truth
Format:Paperback
Ignore the above reviews, as all of them give overwhelming positive reviews on nearly every review they have placed on Amazon or are sharing a publishing house with the author. The truth of the matter is the whole book reads like madlibs. Replace the original names with celebrity names and small details. I bought this book at a Borders going out of business and quickly realized why it was one of the last remaining books in the store. Don't believe me? Let me give you some excerpts. "This is my husband, Joel, Joel Madden, though I did not take his last name. He's from Good Charlotte, the band, do you remember their albums?" -OR- "A talk show host named Dave Letterman pulled over at a rest stop on his way home...." -OR- "Maybe Martha Stewart will find a home for it. Maybe this baby will turn out to be a prominent educator or a musician or a statesman." -OR- "A ring at the bell. It is Justin Timberlake." I will stop there because I believe you get the picture . If you want to ignore me or find out for yourself, go to a brick and mortar bookstore and read the first 20 or 30 pages and make a decision. Usually I don't review things on Amazon, but, I can't stand the fact that the author of this book most likely made a killing on this book by name dropping celebrities. This is not Chekhov, to call it a re-imagining is crap.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In a brilliant cornucopia of life's absurdities and the culture of celebrity, Greenman taps into the universalities of Chekhov's short stories, marrying the Russian's dramatic acuity to current-day actors and reality show personalities. As Chekhov culled insight from every level of Russian society, these angst-riddled folk are equally democratic, "flawed specimens of humanity ruled by ego and insecurity" caught in unscripted moments of tortured self-absorption. From David Letterman's frantic efforts to hide a baby left on his patio ("A Transgression") to an awkward meeting between Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie in an airport ("Tall and Short"), these sly stories reveal the burdens of fame and the banality of ordinary life, like Sarah Palin's emergence on a national political stage, family interactions unedited for media consumption ("The Album").
Eminem demands absolute quiet while wracking his brain for inspiration, leaving his study door open lest anyone forget a genius is at work ("Hush"); conversely, Alec Baldwin arrives at his family's summer digs only to be shuttled from one room to another, temper waxing and waning with the source of provocation ("Not Wanted"). As Chekhov mines the layers of Russian society, Greenman finishes with a flourish, a mildly poignant "Trilogy" wherein Jack Nicholson ("Gooseberries") admits, "I wish I was young! I wish I was young!" and Jamie Foxx reminisces about a secret love for his friend Jay-Z's wife, Beyonce ("About Love").The sad Fate of Lindsay Lohan is bemoaned in "A Classical Student", Lohan's mother, Dina, flayed for the exploitation of her troubled daughter as a commodity. Uncomfortably coincidental, "Terror" features a bemused Michael Douglas in an existential fugue over his own idealization of his perfect family, quiet confidences to a friend compromised by the down-on-his-luck-but-still-smiling Gary Busy, self-effacing and penitent, but with one eye alert for an appreciative audience.
As Chekhov bridges the boundaries of class for a wealth of dramatic material, this author taps into the celebrity-fueled mania of the new millennium, the use of famous (and infamous) names injecting an insidious temptation: the outsider privy to intimate (fictional) conversations of the rich and famous. Where else might a nobody be privy to the rigorous self-examination of Nicole Kidman, a beautiful cipher who entertains no opinions aside from her current mate ("The Darling") or the hubris of Billy Ray Cyrus, a man oblivious to insult when a free haircut is at stake ("At the Barber's)? Celebrity Chekhov has a little something for everyone, a peek into the rarified worlds of those fortunate souls who have capitalized on their fifteen minutes of fame- and a smattering of respected actors- designer footwear tossed aside to reveal feet of clay. Will these stories, like Chekhov's, stand the test of time? Nah, but who can resist eavesdropping on a faux moment of familiarity? Luan Gaines/2010.
Eminem demands absolute quiet while wracking his brain for inspiration, leaving his study door open lest anyone forget a genius is at work ("Hush"); conversely, Alec Baldwin arrives at his family's summer digs only to be shuttled from one room to another, temper waxing and waning with the source of provocation ("Not Wanted"). As Chekhov mines the layers of Russian society, Greenman finishes with a flourish, a mildly poignant "Trilogy" wherein Jack Nicholson ("Gooseberries") admits, "I wish I was young! I wish I was young!" and Jamie Foxx reminisces about a secret love for his friend Jay-Z's wife, Beyonce ("About Love").The sad Fate of Lindsay Lohan is bemoaned in "A Classical Student", Lohan's mother, Dina, flayed for the exploitation of her troubled daughter as a commodity. Uncomfortably coincidental, "Terror" features a bemused Michael Douglas in an existential fugue over his own idealization of his perfect family, quiet confidences to a friend compromised by the down-on-his-luck-but-still-smiling Gary Busy, self-effacing and penitent, but with one eye alert for an appreciative audience.
As Chekhov bridges the boundaries of class for a wealth of dramatic material, this author taps into the celebrity-fueled mania of the new millennium, the use of famous (and infamous) names injecting an insidious temptation: the outsider privy to intimate (fictional) conversations of the rich and famous. Where else might a nobody be privy to the rigorous self-examination of Nicole Kidman, a beautiful cipher who entertains no opinions aside from her current mate ("The Darling") or the hubris of Billy Ray Cyrus, a man oblivious to insult when a free haircut is at stake ("At the Barber's)? Celebrity Chekhov has a little something for everyone, a peek into the rarified worlds of those fortunate souls who have capitalized on their fifteen minutes of fame- and a smattering of respected actors- designer footwear tossed aside to reveal feet of clay. Will these stories, like Chekhov's, stand the test of time? Nah, but who can resist eavesdropping on a faux moment of familiarity? Luan Gaines/2010.
Format:Paperback
Novelist, humorist, and New Yorker editor Greenman has concocted an odd literary hybrid: inject today's celebrities -- from Paris Hilton and David Letterman to Billy Ray Cyrus and Sarah Palin -- into the plots of Chekhov's short stories and see what they do for each other.
"Some years ago Justin Timberlake and I were riding towards evening in fall time in Louisiana to get some coffee...." Kim Kardashian exults to her siblings and parents that she has finally achieved lasting fame: the Internet is buzzing about her sex video with ex-boyfriend Ray J. "Before setting off for her audition, Lindsay Lohan kissed all the movie posters...." "One fine evening, Conan O'Brien was sitting in the second row at the Staples Center, watching the Lakers run away from the Sacramento Kings...." Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler go hunting in the Northern California woods and trade stories about the sorry lives of other famous people.
As a critic, I like most of the books I'm given to review, and I sometimes long for a really bad one to thrash. This one is not at all bad; I'm just not convinced it's ... um ... worth it.
The best stories take time to unfold: "Terror," in which Michael Douglas confides to a nameless narrator his fear of death and unrequited love for his wife, while a dissipated Gary Busey keeps interrupting to wheedle a job out of them; or "The Darling," in which Nicole Kidman is the quiet frontier widow of obsessed theater impresario Tom Cruise, then lumberman Keith Urban, and is barely sustained by the platonic friendship of Brad Pitt, whose son she agrees to care for.
Which is to say that in the most successful tales, the celebrity trappings fall away (or become irrelevant) and you succumb to the spell of the narrative, to lives that look simple on the surface but are complicated and roiling underneath -- in other words, the magic of Chekhov.
There's a chuckle now and then: an image of "busts and portraits of celebrated rappers" on Eminem's writing table; comedians and actors who planned a monument for Andy Kaufman "but snorted up all the money"; a houseguest at Dina and Lindsay Lohan's named Jesse James, who "was sitting at a table, reading Shakespeare" and "was a man of intelligence and education, though he sometimes concealed it."
Having been through the process of publishing a book laden with hard labor and aspirations, I wish good sales to every author (save the get-rich-quick hucksters, millennial visionaries, and get-all-the-dirt-in celeb biographers).
But who will buy this book? Neither fans of the National Enquirer who get their fill at the checkstand, nor (I have to believe) Chekhov lovers. Whom would that leave? Perhaps Celebrity Chekhov could be offered to teenagers as required or optional reading in school, using the bait of famous pop names to spark a discussion of narrative strategy and image ... and to draw kids into reading the stories as Chekhov wrote them.
"Some years ago Justin Timberlake and I were riding towards evening in fall time in Louisiana to get some coffee...." Kim Kardashian exults to her siblings and parents that she has finally achieved lasting fame: the Internet is buzzing about her sex video with ex-boyfriend Ray J. "Before setting off for her audition, Lindsay Lohan kissed all the movie posters...." "One fine evening, Conan O'Brien was sitting in the second row at the Staples Center, watching the Lakers run away from the Sacramento Kings...." Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler go hunting in the Northern California woods and trade stories about the sorry lives of other famous people.
As a critic, I like most of the books I'm given to review, and I sometimes long for a really bad one to thrash. This one is not at all bad; I'm just not convinced it's ... um ... worth it.
The best stories take time to unfold: "Terror," in which Michael Douglas confides to a nameless narrator his fear of death and unrequited love for his wife, while a dissipated Gary Busey keeps interrupting to wheedle a job out of them; or "The Darling," in which Nicole Kidman is the quiet frontier widow of obsessed theater impresario Tom Cruise, then lumberman Keith Urban, and is barely sustained by the platonic friendship of Brad Pitt, whose son she agrees to care for.
Which is to say that in the most successful tales, the celebrity trappings fall away (or become irrelevant) and you succumb to the spell of the narrative, to lives that look simple on the surface but are complicated and roiling underneath -- in other words, the magic of Chekhov.
There's a chuckle now and then: an image of "busts and portraits of celebrated rappers" on Eminem's writing table; comedians and actors who planned a monument for Andy Kaufman "but snorted up all the money"; a houseguest at Dina and Lindsay Lohan's named Jesse James, who "was sitting at a table, reading Shakespeare" and "was a man of intelligence and education, though he sometimes concealed it."
Having been through the process of publishing a book laden with hard labor and aspirations, I wish good sales to every author (save the get-rich-quick hucksters, millennial visionaries, and get-all-the-dirt-in celeb biographers).
But who will buy this book? Neither fans of the National Enquirer who get their fill at the checkstand, nor (I have to believe) Chekhov lovers. Whom would that leave? Perhaps Celebrity Chekhov could be offered to teenagers as required or optional reading in school, using the bait of famous pop names to spark a discussion of narrative strategy and image ... and to draw kids into reading the stories as Chekhov wrote them.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Russian Names / Celebirty Names
This was a good book to get me reading Chekhov, as if for the first time, as an adult (see Richard Ford's introduction to "Essential Tales of Chekhov : Edited By Richard Ford"). Read more
Published 20 months ago by rimbaud
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun Way To Read Chekhov
What I Can Tell You:
I read this book last night in about 2 hours. It was so fun and witty. Until today, I had no idea who Chekhov was. Read more
I read this book last night in about 2 hours. It was so fun and witty. Until today, I had no idea who Chekhov was. Read more
Published on November 2, 2010 by M. G. Gagliano
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent introduction or re-telling of Chekhov
If you think Anton Chekhov's writing would be too staid, too removed from modern life to be worthwhile then Celebrity Chekhov is an inventive (and very amusing) retelling of some... Read more
Published on October 19, 2010 by Victoria Craven
5.0 out of 5 stars
Humanizes and Satirizes Celebrities At the Same Time
"Celebrity Chekhov" is one of those genius ideas that makes other writers kick themselves for not thinking of it first. Read more
Published on October 15, 2010 by I Hear Vine Voices
