Misadventures in the (213) [Hardcover]

Dennis Hensley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 1998

What Armistead Maupin did for San Francisco, Dennis Hensley does double for Los Angeles with a tale of a struggling screenwriter, his circle of urbane celebrity-loving friends, and their madcap attempts to make it in the biz.

"(213)?" you'll likely ask.

To which we'd say: "The area code, silly".

"Misadventures?"

Oh, just the usual crazy high jinks underemployed Tinseltown wannabes usually get up to. Like making off with fish from Tina Louise's koi pond. Or asking Leeza Gibbons via Airfone who does her headshots. Or grossing out Alicia Silverstone with tales of watermelon-loving porn stars. Or auctioning off Andrew Shue's chicken wing and Heather Locklear's lip-print for charity. You know.

And the wannabes themselves? Well, there's Craig, the screenwriter mentioned above. And Dandy Rio, his best friend and star of her own hit sitcom, "That's Just Dandy". Miles, their super-publicist friend, and Ulysses, a noble but unsuccessful musician from Craig and Dandy's college days. Oh, and a whole slew of love slaves.

Packed with life lessons from 90s L.A. and more B-level celebs than you can shake a casting sheet at, Misadventures in the (213) is a brilliantly witty romp down the maw of the L.A. entertainment machine. And just wait til you come out the other end.

Of course, money, fame, and glamour aren't everything....

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dennis Hensley's Misadventures in the (213) is like the best kind of gossip--something you might hear from a friend who heard it from a friend who knows someone who does Tori Spelling's hair--and it's just bitchy enough to be very, very funny. Aspiring screenwriter Craig Clybourn arrives in Hollywood and is soon sucked into a series of giddy escapades involving a phone book full of B-list celebrities and enough scandal to keep the most rabid "Melrose Place" fan happy (including a shocking case of watermelon abuse!) Craig's adventures were originally published as a monthly serial in Detour magazine, and the episodic structure that this lends to the book only serves to keep the laughs coming thick and fast. From AIDS dance-athons to champagne glasses bearing Heather Locklear's lipstick, Misadventures in the (213), paints a picture of life in L.A. that is both bizarre and true to life, thanks to Hensley's unique insider perspective. It's a fluffy, sugar-dusted, chocolate-dipped dessert of a novel with a cherry on the top, and if you have a sense of humor and an open mind, its charms are irresistible. --Simon Leake

From Publishers Weekly

In this comic novel of Hollywood's outer circle, essentially a book-length version of Hensley's (lightly fictionalized?) gossip column for Detour magazine, the in-joke is more than a gestureAit's a lifestyle. Celebrity-crazed Craig Clyborne has an edge over the other L.A. schemers and dreamers he hangs around with. His best friend is Dandy Rio, the sexually voracious, hilariously Machiavellian star of a new sitcom. The book's plot, which involves Craig's moving to Hollywood to peddle his script, is just a device from which to hang various sketches, mostly about Dandy scheming, alternately, to bed various stars (for example, Bill Maher, the host of Politically Incorrect) and to redeem her career, which, midway through the book, begins to bomb. Dandy is by far Hensley's most enjoyable creation: Craig's always-a-bridesmaid litany of disastrous dates (with a waiter, with the son of a game show host, with the star of a rock 'n' roll band) soon grows tiring. The novel's considerable gag sense and rapid-fire one-liners will be best appreciated by fanatics of TV trivia; others, especially those outside (213), may start to feel like intruders on an infernal party line.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (June 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688154522
• ISBN-13: 978-0688154523
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,664,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A RIOT! (Does anyone know Craig's telephone number?), May 1, 2000

By 

JCB (I Love Seattle!) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Misadventures in the (213) (Hardcover)

I couldn't put this book down. I bought this book months ago after a friend recommended it to me. But I put it on my bookshelf and almost forgot about, until one night when I found myself looking for a book and came face-to-face with the flamboyant face on the cover staring at me. It seemed to scream: "Read me, dammit!" I flinched, and then I picked it up to read the first couple paragraphs...pages...chapters...(I completely forgot what I was looking for). It's been a while since I laughed through a whole book--I actually don't think I'd ever laughed through a whole book. MISADVENTURES cracked me up so much, I couldn' put the book down, and at one point I felt like a fool trying to hold back my guffaw on the subway--feeling like a bigger fool missing my stop (yet again). Dennis Hensley has a profound knowledge base of American pop culture; in fact, it's rather scary, in a "I-can't-believe-you-knew-that" sort of way, how entrenched this novel is in camp television/film culture. I loved it! You have to love Craig, the narrator of the story; and the supporting characters are all multidimensional...or should I say dysfunctional. The dialogue has got to be the best part of this novel. You can almost hear the characters talking. I'm going to get the audio version of this book just to hear Craig, et. al. This novel is too outrageous to be real, and just for that, it deserves to be read over and over and over again.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nonstop Fun, February 19, 2003

By 

wickedripeplum (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Misadventures in the (213) (Paperback)

Screening Party was a recommended to me and after I finished that I HAD to read Misadventures. I wan't disappointed. It was so funny I could barely make it through a page without laughing out loud. Craig was completelely lovable and the people that surronded him were trippy and wonderful. It's a great book, especially for people who love movies, television, and the camp culture that's grown up around them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out-loud funny!, January 28, 2002

By 

DonMac "butchm" (Lynn, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Misadventures in the (213) (Paperback)

This book succeeds where so many other comic novels do not: it is actually funny. Very funny. You will laugh out loud at these characters and their outrageous adventures, one-liners and off-the-cuff remarks. Much better than other silly comedies like Glamourpuss or Hello Darling ...