Customer Reviews

My Life Uncovered (Red Dress Ink Novels)

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My Life Uncovered is a fun-filled roller coaster ride through the competing worlds of Hollywood and adult entertainment. With the help of girl-next-door Laura Taylor, Lynn Isenberg gives the rest of us an inside look at a world of steals and deals that before remained a mystery. I laughed and then I laughed some more and then I laughed so hard I cried.

MY LIFE UNCOVERED has all the ingredients for a fun, provocative and witty read: insider Hollywood, the sex industry, sister marrying an ex-date of the heroine, Dad dating younger women.

It's the perfect set-up for the literary equivalent of a decadent dessert souffle. Unfortunately, MY LIFE UNCOVERED is as appetizing as a stale matzo.

This is author Isenberg's first novel, and it badly shows. Clunky writing such as "I didn't know it then, but I would come to know that Lincoln and its mysterious inhabitant soon enough" abound. The novel is a catalog of heroine Laura's actions (literally. Too many paragraphs to count start with "Two days later" or "One hour later" or "Three weeks later.") But while we know the contents of Laura's shopping cart, there's precious little insight into who she is. And when the insight does come, it's with heavy, on-the-nose ponderousness. Hint: it's usually preceded by a rabbinical lesson, just so you won't miss the significance.

The novel is heavy on exposition that is hard to trudge through. A sample: "I spin around to come face-to-face with Mitchell Mann, my old boyfriend. Four years ago, I delivered a script to him from Eric Leve at STA. At the time, Eric has just signed Mitchell, a young, charasmatic British music director with a burning desire to direct horror films. Eric got him his first gig directing Zombie Cometh for a mini-studio..." And it continues in this expository miniutiae vein for two and half paragraphs. By the time Laura gets around to greeting Mitchell, we've forgotten she was in the scene.

The book has such promising material, you find yourself reading past the point of annoyance in the hopes that somewhere, anywhere, a story will start to break out. Unfortunately, that never happens. And for a book that is set in the adult film industry, it is surprisingly un-sexy. Laura does have sexual encounters, including a threesome, but they leave as much impact on her - and are described in the same prose style - as does eating a pizza with her next door neighbors. When she meets the character who will be her love interest, he's given as much attention as any of the other myriad supporting characters who walk onto a page, say a line, and disappear for stretches at a time.

It also doesn't help that the book names the wrong utility (the Gas Company has nothing to do with electrical power in LA); gets the Telluride Film Festival mixed up with Sundance (the majority of the films at Telluride already have distributors, so few acquisitions execs go there to actually buy films - the buying frenzy happens at Sundance); and names the Getty as a possible wedding location (a quick look at its website tells you it's not available for weddings or other private events). Nitpicks, I know, but if you sell a book as an insider's view, it might be nice to get the details right.

I wanted to like MY LIFE UNCOVERED, but the writing gets in the way.

I didn't like this book at all. Laura, the main character, who has no prior interest in or knowledge of the porn industry, is desperate for money and so she writes a screenplay for a porn film. She writes it in three days, on no sleep, and it is so ground breaking and brilliant that it is immediately bought by a producer for more money than any other porn writer in the industry has ever received. Within a matter of weeks, the film has been made, earned critical raves and won several awards, and has become (as we are reminded about every five pages) "a cult classic". This quickly helps Laura get over her reservations and she writes six or seven more films, which are produced just as quickly and to just as lavish praise, in the space of a few months. Sigh. Come on, I enjoy chick lit as much as the next chick, but for me, there needs to be *some* realism for a story to work.

More distracting than the flimsy plot elements was the cheesy dialogue: "When I left Michigan and headed out west, I could feel the heat of adventure in front of me. I knew then that writing movies would be my way of creating social change" and "Why do you want to make love to me?" "To help you know yourself", and my personal favorite: "I went to synagogue to forgive myself for baring my breasts". Lines like this were so reminiscent of the dialogue that is typically in the kind of movies Laura made that I found myself wondering if the author has written some of these herself. If so, hopefully she has a better psuedonym than Bella Fleega! :-)

Most of the characters were completely one-dimensional stereotypes. There was the cigar chomping porn film company head taken straight from "The Godfather". There was the monosyllabic oaf of an ex-boyfriend, who geuinely can not understand why Laura dumped him just because he impregnated another woman. There was the saintly new boyfriend, kind and loving, who didn't even blink when Laura decided she needed a break from sex because hanging around porn movie sets was turning her off. Neurotic parents, an in the closet gay brother (who stops speaking to Laura because she tells him she's making a documentary about strippers, but openly admires her secret alter ego Bella - "I think she's fab"), a loyal best friend, etc etc etc. We've seen all these characters before, and in far better incarnations.

Honestly, I really did think this was an interesting set up, with the potential to be a hilarious chick lit romp. Unfortunately, the writing was just so poor that it never got off the ground.

Take heart, aspiring writers. This novel proves that even the most talentless novelist can have his/her book published. This "fictional" account reads more like a recipe than a story as the writer uses a whopping 46 characters to tell her boring tale. As soon as I saw the catalogue of characters on the third page, I should've just put the book down. In fact, many times I was tempted to stop reading but it is my habit to read a book to its conclusion, hoping to find some redeeming quality.
Let's begin with the basic premise...A struggling Hollywood writer gains fame while writing best selling "Thinking Man's Porn." What the author fails to realize is that the zillion dollar porn industry is driven by a male audience. Men simply don't care about a storyline, however compelling it may be. In fact, men tend to fast forward to the "good stuff" as they are visually driven creatures. Best selling porn is not meant to change your life, it's meant to give you your jollies. Even if you suspend reality and try to enjoy this book for the characters, you will be disappointed. The characters are drawn in a very sketchy manner-maybe because there are so many of them-and it's hard to care about any of them. The writer had loads of material to work with character-wise and she didn't take advantage of it at all. The story of the gay brother, the loopy mother, the missing father-all of these could've been interesting if they'd been developed. And finally, I cared not a whit about our heroine Laura. Even when her worlds collided, it was anti-climatic. This writer needs to get off the chick-lit bandwagon and stick with writing screenplays. She outlined many fabulous screenplay ideas in this book and should devote her time to exploring them.

FULLY ENGAGING... Isenberg gracefully weaves the intricate plot of a charming young women and her fortuitous porn writer alter-ego leaving us all to rethink conventional morality. Her wonderful storytelling coupled with an endearing humor makes it a can't-put-down book.

This book is a 'sexy/romantic comedy' sort of chick lit novel, although unfortunately it fails on all accounts: it's not sexy, or particularly romantic, and I don't recall laughing even once through the long and drawn out 300 pages. Perhaps I managed a smile or two - if it had been a screenplay, the in-the-closet gay brother who invents leather socks could have been quite a character - but any humour here was quickly displaced by poor quality writing that you might expect from your average high school student.

I won't go into detail about all the various flaws this book has since many other reviews have done that already ('clunky' writing, way too many characters etc), but my main general criticism would be that Lynn Isenberg breaks one of the most basic rules of all good fiction writing: show, don't tell. Ms Isenberg doesn't want to let the reader work things out for themselves, so instead she tells us what someone's reaction is instead of letting them react; or she makes it bleedingly obvious that a certain event or conversation is a pivotal moment by dropping in awkward phrasing like "I didn't know it then but...". It hints at something to come, instead of just letting us wait to find out. This is sometimes called authorial intrusion (although it may have another name as well) and is very old fashioned. It's not in and of itself a bad thing, but just because it works in Flaubert's Madame Bovary doesn't mean it's going to work in 21st century chick lit. Mostly it's lazy and sloppy writing, a cop out for not being able to imaginatively work the plot in such a way that the reader is not clubbed to death with 'the point' of the story. There is A LOT of it in this book.

Apart from that the main character Laura Taylor, who writes porn under the atrocious pseudonym Bella Feega, spends virtually the entire book doing the Clark Kent/Superman thing: only a small handful of people know they are one and the same, and so the number of occasions where Laura has to make up excuses why they can never appear in the same room together becomes so tedious you just wish the whole thing would come to an end about two thirds of the way through.

There's also little about it that's daring considering it's about making porn films (the characters don't even 'have sex', they 'make love'). Yes, you'll find mention of sex toys and threesomes, but it's hardly erotica. It's all so cumbersome and unexciting, and Laura herself seems like such a prude (even after having written half a dozen porn films) that I find it hard to believe that there's anything much in here that normal adults would find 'shocking'.

I really think that the plot of this book had some potential to be a fun and maybe slightly sexy read. But it reads like a rough and unedited draft and falls flat on its face from almost the first page.

Everyone will fall in love with Laura Taylor! Through Isenberg's crafty writing style in My Life Uncovered, the reader will find themselves experiencing all of the trials and tribulations that come with...the adult film industry! In a novel that is everything but normal, the reader will enjoy the journey this young, strong, and determined woman must take. In a world where life doesn't always go as planned, the reader shall walk away from this novel with a new understanding of values and of necessities to find not only a career but who they are as a person.

My Life Uncovered entertaining, funny, sexy (without being too explicit) and overall a great read. I really enjoyed following the main character Laura Taylor, in her own Hollywood journey. I really got a sense that this was about a normal person thrust into the pornography business, the action, the emotions, the struggles were described so realistically, I felt that I was going through them too. The plot is exciting which makes reading the book a definite page turner at the same time it's impossible to predict where the story is going to go which makes reading it all the more enjoyable. Lynn Isenberg has a talent for capturing normal people and putting them in abnormal situations. I would definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone.

My Life Uncovered by Lynn Isenberg is a fun story about Laura Taylor, a Hollywood screenwriter who has never sold a screenplay. After her latest deal turns out to never have existed and falling into dire straits, Laura accidentally lands a job writing porn films. As she begins to take to the industry and change it from the inside (for the better!) Laura beings to juggle the duel life she has created: Laura Taylor, the struggling Hollywood writer who is still promoting her latest script, The Law of Malus, and member of her family; and Bella Feega, her porn-writing, English-accented alter ego. The question remains, will Laura continue with her double identity or will she finally merge the two and deal with the ramifications and/or benefits?

The book itself is a fun and deeply informative look at the porn and Hollywood industries. Isenberg takes a rather mature look at her subject, bringing to light the emotional, spiritual, and even healing side of sexuality. She deftly avoids falling into the trap of the often skin-deep view of sexuality that many chic lit writers take.

I found My Life Uncovered to be a very fun book. I could not help but be reminded of the HBO show Weeds, which, like My Life Uncovered, takes a different look at a rather underground industry. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys chic lit with a more serious twist.

This novel mentions a show called Inside Hollywood. The aforementioned title fits this great book down to a tee. My Life Uncovered is a fun, witty and realistic tale about the life of a struggling screenwriter. Laura Taylor has written the American Screenplay. However, like most Hollywood screenwriters, she has difficulty selling her work. Her life takes a strange turn when she stumbles upon the adult film industry. With a provocative pseudonym and a mind full of fresh ideas, she becomes the most sought-after and respected screenwriter in said obscure film genre. She continues to struggle in Hollywood as her adult film career reaches legendary status. No sooner does she obtain the aforementioned fame than her two worlds collide.

My Life Uncovered is full of ironic circumstances and hilarious twists. Ms. Isenberg's takes on Hollywood are insightful and earnest. The one thing I find troublesome about this novel is that it has too many characters. She does not mention all of the characters in the screenplay-like "Cast of Characters" listed in the book. Most of the secondary characters are agents, and I had difficulty remembering all of them. Other than that, this novel is a must-read. Another winner from Red Dress Ink. Highly recommended...