Customer Reviews

How I Became a Famous Novelist

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For anyone who loves (to laugh at) books and the people who write them, HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST offers plenty to enjoy. In composing the fictional memoir of first-time novelist and literary scandal-monger Pete Tarslaw, comedy writer Steve Hely finds ways to gleefully skewer all forms of literary genre and pretension. The spoof New York Times Bestseller List (linked to in the Amazon Best of the Month Review above) is a classic in its own right and sets much of the tone for the whole book. Tarslaw's determination to impress his ex-girlfriend by establishing himself as a famous author in time for her upcoming wedding creates the main trajectory for the novel. The pace is brisk. The laughs come thick and fast. (If you enjoy books by Ben Elton or Mil Millington, then this is definitely one for you.) On occasion, Tarslaw's attitude and observations became too snide and snarky for my liking. But Hely has created a highly entertaining book--a fake memoir with a lot of sad truths about the current state of the book publishing industry.

How did I become a famous Amazon reviewer? Well, that hasn't happened yet. But maybe it will if 50,000 people answer Yes to the question that appears below.

Steve Hely is one of those annoying guys who not only gets into Harvard, he ends up running the Lampoon and then, after graduation, almost immediately becomes a writer for David Letterman. Now he's written How I Became a Famous Novelist, and the only reason I don't hate this young punk is because he's penned the funniest book I've read all year and I literally laughed out loud at the spooky rate of at least once per page.

How did this happen? Hely went to a bookstore: "Seeing the massive quantities of books of all genres and varieties, I got to thinking, 'What if one book contained all of these?' "

That's what he told USA Today. To The New Yorker, he admitted something closer to the truth: "Walking around huge bookstores inspired me --- there are so many books! And so many of them are so crazy!"

Well, guess what? So is this one --- just in a good way.

Here's the story: Pete Tarslaw's one talent as a kid was writing thank-you notes. Writing his college essay? Cake. So was majoring in English in college. So was scoring a cool girlfriend: "The fetching Polly Pawson first slept with me because it was easier than walking back to her room."

Graduation is a double shot of reality. He'll have to make his way in the world. And he'll have to do it without Polly, who has rejected his career plan for them --- "conning a wealthy dowager" --- and is off to law school.

When we meet Pete, he's living in Boston, working for EssayAides and rewriting college essays for rich kids. He lives in a dump with an equally depressed roommate. He eats sour cream and chives potato chips for breakfast. At night, he watches TV or reads, for no good reason, the Sunday New York Times Book Review --- specifically, the bestseller lists. Without exception, he concludes, the writers suck, and none sucks more than Preston Brooks, "the Mannheim Steamroller of novelists."

Worse cometh: Polly sends a mass e-mail to announce her engagement. Pete cannot go to the wedding as a loser who writes college essays. He needs to be successful. And at something easy. Something like....a novel. Because he has now seen Preston Brooks on TV and decided he's "the greatest con artist in the world".

Well, Pete can con too. Because if there's one thing Pete thinks he knows about the writing game, it's this: "The financial success of an author is inversely proportional to the literary worth of the book."

And so he begins to write. You do not have to know about the literary world or the book business to find the humor. On the merit of exotic locations: "Americans trust knowledge acquired abroad. The Mediterranean, in particular, has a potent sun-dried magic for them, as evidenced by their love for Andrea Bocelli and the Olive Garden". On the "hard work" of writing: "It was more like shoveling snow or cleaning out the attic, tedious labor toward a very distant end." And there is the Truth about the greats: "Faulkner, a southern huckster in the Bill Clinton mode..."

Is there sex? Yes, but not like in books. Drugs? Yes, but not what you think. Does Pete sell his book and make it? Hey, look at the title!

If you've just had surgery and the stitches seem less than industrial strength, hold off. Otherwise, get ready to chortle.

I loved Steve Hely's hard-edged satire "How I Became A Famous Novelist." It's as simple as that. Pulling no punches, Hely manages to skewer both populist fiction and the literary set with equal measures of acid and humor. A fast, dirty and dangerous read--it's easy to dismiss this blissfully funny novel as pure comedy. But there is so much truth in Hely's observations, it's hard to deny his critique as over-the-top outlandishness. So, in a way, "How I Became A Famous Novelist" takes a unique position in literary criticism by fashioning itself as a madcap adventure.

Pete Tarslaw, the thoroughly petty and unlikable center of "Famous Novelist," decides to become a best selling author to impress a former girlfriend. Seems reasonable enough! How hard can it be? Taking a cue from the books and authors that light up the Best Seller charts, Tarslaw slaves over a genuinely bizarre tale that borrows elements from popular books and combines everything that people love into one epic romance, historical, war, road trip literary masterpiece.

The cynicism is so pointed and the satire so sharp as Tarslaw dissects what elements need to be included in his vision that more sensitive readers might be put off. Unfortunately, though, as cynical as "Famous Novelist" can be about the current state of books--it can hit pretty close to the target. But, at the same time, Hely clearly loves and is knowledgeable about his subject. So, ultimately, "Famous Novelist" stands as a good natured ribbing about a medium that needs all the attention it can get! Charting the rise and fall of Pete Tarslaw, Hely's tale does go a little soft in the end. But after such a rowdy ride, it's easy to forgive some unexpected sincerity!

Anyone who has ever wondered, "How did that book get published?" or "Why did that book from James Patterson or John Grisham become elevated to literature" MUST read this book! It is without a doubt THE funniest parody of the publishing industry that I have EVER read.

It all starts out when Pete Tarslaw decides to write a best-seller to gain fame, respect, and copious amounts of money while humiliating his ex-girlfriend at her wedding. Pete -- a writer of college admissions essays for kids that shouldn't ever get accepted to college -- sets up a number of self-imposed rules, including Rule #2: "Write a popular book. Do not waste energy making it a good book." His role model is Preston Brooks, who turns out best-sellers one after the other, with prose like this: "Myra turned back to her plate, back to the runny eggs, the bridge of bacon. And that apple slice. The thin slice that looked so much like the place she'd never seen. The slice of earth and sorrow and bravery where her husband had fallen to the earth. And gone back to the earth. The slice called Vietnam."

Urrggh! Surely, Pete feels, he can do better than THIS tripe. He analyzes the best sellers and decides that his must liberate his main character from a lousy job, have plenty of highway scenes, include scenes from as many reader-filled towns as possible (so the independent press will lap it up), include a secret club (Dan Brown?), create characters whose lives are changed suddenly through surprising love affairs, target key multicultural demographics, and include meals and plant names. The result is a book he calls The Tornado Ashes Club, and sure enough, it becomes an almost overnight best seller.

There is plenty here to make any reader double over in laughter. His spoof of The New York Times Book Review with books descriptions such as "On Nantucket, a beautiful nun who's given up on love finds herself attracted to a psychic who may be a dangerous arsonist" will make any reader howl in mock-recognition. His description of the cynical publishing industry that tries to infuse Christian themes in the most unlikely books to appeal to the Wal-Mart crowd is hilarious. His descriptions of San Diego's big book fair, Montana's foremost writing workshop, Oprah, book critics and other hangers-on is infused with bits of truth and hilarity. And his imitation of the various styles that pass for good reading at the start of the chapters is side-splitting.

For anyone who is a writer, wants to be a writer, is a reader, THINKS he or she is a reader, or is remotely curious about reading, run -- don't walk -- to your computer and order How I Became A Famous Novelist. It's THAT funny.

Our hero is desperate to impress an ex-girlfriend who is getting married in one year. He has only one year, then, to change his life from a slacker who makes his living ghosting college entrance essays and college class papers, whose hobby appears to be napping and drinking. He realizes that most best selling authors seem to follow a sort of formula. He analysis the formula with the goal of writing a best seller. How she will be sorry that she didn't marry him!

This premise leads us to a very, very funny book. Obviously, people who are writers, or people who read a lot, will find this funnier than folks who won't recognize the formulas he describes. And how pretentious some of the hacks he meets are! This is just wonderful! I loved the decision to include scenes in his book where folks are driving: it will increase the sales for an audiobook version, since folks like to listen in their cars. That is just inspired silliness.

Our young author writes his book, has many interesting adventures, and makes some enemies along the way.

I loved the way this book ended, too. I won't create a spoiler, but I was deeply touched by the description of a book he is reading. A really good statement about the power of literature comes through.

I just loved this book! I understand that the author writes for "American Dad." I should have known. This is just excellent, tight humor.

I hope it sells a million!

If ever there was a book that started out strong only to fizzle out way too quickly, this is it. Hely takes a wonderful premise--young author decides the only way to sell books today is to become dismally poor at writing, great at overwriting and completely attentive to "marketing demographics"--but then runs it into the ground. As other have noted before me, this might have been a good short story but, as a novel, it just doesn't make it.

Are there funny moments? Yes, especially the send up of the NY Times bestseller list on page 43, and his comments about book "reviewers" is worth quoting in full, for all us Amazon reviewers to remember:

"Book reviewers are the most despicable, loathsome order of swine that ever rooted about the earth they are sniveling, revolting creatures who feed their own appetites for bile by gnawing apart other people's work...Even when being `kindly,' book reviewers reveal their true nature as condescending jerks. `We look forward to hearing more from the author,' a book reviewer might say. The prissy tones sound like a second-grade piano teacher, offering you a piece of years-old strawberry hard candy and telling you to practice more." (page 149)

Bottom line, however, I cannot give this more than 2 stars; the ending is weak and many pages past the time he should have finished. Unfortunately the snark factor, repetitive joke lines, and over the top cynicism overwhelm the humor pretty early on. The plot becomes more and more bizarre until I finally felt like the author was like a stand up comedian who has to take to wearing funny hats and doing acrobatic tricks to somehow keep us amused. Sadly as a result, this critical reviewer is not even ready to throw in a "look forward to hearing more from the author" comment.

A great, funny idea for a novel - about becoming a novelist. Well-written but after a while the quotes from "other" books (mostly invented) become similar and you long for the voice of the writer. Laughs become sparse in second half. The author's next book will be better (I assume he's writing one!).

One of the toughtest feats for a writer, I think, is the comic novel. I mean the flat-out, trying-to-make-you-bust-a-gut-while-still-telling-a-rip-roaring-good-story comic novel. Well, here it is. It's a true laugh-out-loud (I like words with dashes in them in this review evidently) tale about exactly what the title advertises: how the narrator became a famous novelist. It's also a biting satire of the modern fiction game, and it's almost faultlessly on the nose in that respect, too. I read it in three big gulps because I was (a) so freaking entertained by it and (b) I couldn't wait to see how it turned out. And just when you think the author is going for The Point in the last few pages of the book, he does it so satisfyingly that it makes the whole enterprise that much more rewarding. I loved every page of this book.

Wow. I haven't read anything this humorous in ages. This book is the faux-memoir of Pete Tarslaw, an average Joe of questionable ethics who sets out to write a best-selling novel. He studies the books on bestseller lists, and charts a plan to include each of the elements that these books seem to contain in his own work of 'art'. In the midst of the satirical humor, the book is actually an insightful commentary on the state of publishing and writing today.

If you have ever wondered how an absolutely horrible book gets `legs', Steve Hely explains it in this story. It is chock-full of dirt regarding the publishing industry and the manipulation of consumers. This cynical view would be extremely depressing if Hely hadn't pulled off the magic trick of making these revelations hysterically funny. While the book does make you wonder how much we as readers and buyers of books are targeted by writers and publishers, the bottom line is that good literature can and should still win out.

I highly recommend this book to avid readers or anyone who just wants a hearty belly laugh. I ordered it on my Kindle and found it so entertaining that I ordered an old-fashioned paper copy for my husband.

Pete Tarslaw isn't a bad man, exactly. He just wants to wow the ex-girlfriend with his "you coulda had THIS!" success as she weds the troglodyte Austrailian (i.e. not him). A simple plan unfolds. It's not that he wants to be one of the many jerky con artist-writers he sees on the (hilarious and fake) NY Times Bestseller List. It's just he wants the perks: the fame and modest fortune, the house by water, the bikini-clad girls, but most of all (and this is key), he never wants to work again.

Heck, we've all been there.

So he sits in a coffee joint, picks a demographic, invents some Long Con rules (there must be murder, scenes that romanticize driving, and lots of shout-outs to bars in Billings, Portland, Tallahassee). Then he goes to town.

The results of his sweat (but not blood) is a marvel--a completely contrived novel guaranteed to jerk tears, pound hearts, and make wallets open and say, "Take me, big boy". Can Hollywood, a fat check--or an awakened concience--be far behind?

Steve Hely is that treasure among men: an author who's gazed out on quivering humanity, and has found us all to be One Giant Mark. This parody is so much fun I kept reading bits out loud to my family, and for once, THEY DIDN'T MIND. Along the way, Hely crucifies every genre of pop fiction out there in portraits of fake authors so delicious you'll see your real favorites (and perhaps your dream careers) utterly ripped to shreds.

My son and I are currently fighting over this book. Pete Tarslaw and his awful novel, "The Tornado Ashes Club" would be proud.

Update: just finished the book. It ends with a brilliant speech by the self-important "Preston Brooks". It's simply one of the funniest passages I've ever read. In my mind, Preston looks like somebody, but who?

Maybe it's Ben Bernake.