Hot Properties: 2 [Hardcover]

Rafael Yglesias (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 1986

 

The critically acclaimed novel from a master of contemporary American fiction—now available as an ebook

 

An irreverent satire of New York’s media world—and its influence and allure

 

Writers Tony, Patty, Fred, and David all know what they want: renown, glamour, wealth, recognition. They know where to get it: New York, a beacon for ambitious novelists, playwrights, and journalists. But what they don’t know is that the game is changing. This is the 1980s, an era of massive corporatization and commercialization in the business of arts and letters. Fame and fortune may come quickly for many, but dignity and lasting influence are in short supply.

 

Rafael Yglesias’s most sharp-tongued satire, Hot Properties exposes the greed, envy, and backbiting in a media world bloated with money and power.

 

This ebook features a new illustrated biography of Rafael Yglesias, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

 

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Touted by the gossip columns as a roman a clef about the publishing world, Yglesias's fourth novel has definite commercial potential, since there are always people who like to read sordid tales about the media. Focusing on a group of ambitious, opportunistic New York yuppies, each desperate for success, power, fame, money and glamorous sexual partners, Yglesias follows his characters as their aspirations flourish or fade. And even for the one person who comes up with a smashing bestseller, happiness is an elusive emotion, banished by inner fear and self-loathing. The leading players in this fermenting brew are introduced in the book's opening scene, a dinner party so exquisitely awkward that even the reader is embarrassed. Thereafter we watch an aspiring playwright sell out to Hollywood; a sexy blonde discover she can really write, but must use her body to assure publication; a blocked novelist lose his scruples, professional and personal; a journalist at a leading newsmagazine realize that his way to the top has been sabotaged by office intrigue. Yglesias views his characters with cynicism, but he knows how to create the dramatic momentum that will have readers turning the pages. And if his book does become a bestseller, he will have the ironic last laugh.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Hot Properties [is] the novel you want in the Hamptons. It lambastes the pretensions of the people you’ve been glaring at on the beach all day, and excoriates the city you’ve left behind.”—The New York Times Book Review

 

“Sharp, funny, and fresh insight into the American literary world . . .” —Financial Times

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1st edition (June 25, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525244212
• ISBN-13: 978-0525244219
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,196,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rafael Yglesias is an American novelist and screenwriter, the son of writers Jose and Helen Yglesias. He dropped out of high school upon publication of his first novel, Hide Fox, And All After in 1972 at age 17. He is the author of nine novels, including A Happy Marriage, winner of the 2009 Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize, Dr. Neruda's Cure For Evil and Fearless, which he adapted for the screen. He also wrote the screenplays for Death And The Maiden, Les Miserables, From Hell, and Dark Water. He has two sons: Matthew Yglesias, a Fellow at the Center For American Progress, public intellectual and author of Heads In The Sand; Nicholas Yglesias is a fantasy novelist who has recently completed Succession, the first of a three volume trilogy. Rafael lives in the city of his birth, New York.