Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you like "Entourage," you will love this novel!, July 31, 2007
In "The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse," Jonathan Selwood creates an unforgettable portrayal of contemporary Hollywood. This hilarious debut novel evokes the absurd characters and apocalyptic imagery of "The Day of the Locust," the grotesque metaphors of "The Loved One," and the desperation of "Play It As It Lays." Selwood presents us with a city which has perfected the art of denial. The Angelenos ignore an accelerating rate of local disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires, and creeping tar, in favor of going about their daily business. At the same time, they manage to disregard the proof of imminent global apocalypse which has been documented by the main character's father. Why this is all so funny, I'm not sure, but it has something to do with the recurring references to "tapirlike" features, deviled eggs, and prehistoric mammals. If you are familiar with Los Angeles, you will laugh in recognition at the descriptions of Beverly Hills, Mulholland, Hollywood Hills, "south-of-Wilshire-east-of-La Brea," the Bourgeois Pig, Musso & Frank's, Cheremoya Ave. School, and especially the La Brea tar pits and the "Batcave". If you have never set foot in the city, you will finish the book feeling as if you've just been there. The technicolor imagery makes this perfect material for a screen adaptation. I hope someone turns "The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse" into a movie and I hope Selwood is already at work on a second novel.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Smart, funny, and quick., September 17, 2007
Jonathan Selwood, The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse (Harper, 2007)
I love Mara Lander. Now, I should say, I've never actually met Mara Lander, but I know she's a publicist at Harper, and she sends me books. As if that's not enough, she sends me good books, the kind that I am pleased as punch to read and review, even if they're in a genre I'm not usually that big on-- comedy. This is the second that she's dropped in the mail for me (Nicholas Kulish's fantastic Last One In was the first), and I have to say, I liked this one almost as much, and for most of the same reasons.
Selwood gives us Isabel Raven, no-longer-struggling LA artist, and her entourage: a neurotic mother, a geeky landlord, an insane agent (who may or may not be the mother's boyfriend), a stoner dad, a boyfriend who's signed on to be the personal chef of "the Latina Britney Spears", a dot-com billionaire who's crazy about her work, the billionaire's juvenile-delinquent daughter, a beat-up but seemingly magic old car, and, of course, the occasional earthquake, along with a smattering of others. All of these factors combine to make Isabel's life, which seemed as if it was just starting to go right, turn itself upside down and start shaking out its pockets. There's not really much of a plot to this puppy, just a lot of characters moving in and out of one another's lives in the funniest ways possible. (And if you think the book's a hoot, check out Selwood's spurious "book club discussion guide" in the back, which actually had me burst out laughing in inappropriate public places a few times.) Selwood claims he wrote it to be read in one sitting, and it probably can be, if you're not in the middle of moving house and adopting a kid at the same time you're reading the book (I got a mental image, while reading his afterword, of Selwood imitating John Sayles writing Alligator on a plane from LA to New York back in the seventies...). The only thing about the book that really drove me nuts was the absence of the second "the" in the title. Everything else, though? Grand. ****
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insanity in the Art and Advertising World!, September 3, 2007
Isabel Raven was told in school that she had "technical abilities," a polite way of saying her artistic talent was mediocre in originality but technically correct enough to earn her a paying position as a copier of great art. Not an auspicious beginning for an aspiring art career, for sure!
As the novel opens with a Los Angeles earthquake, Isabel's reputation is taking a major turn toward fame due to the promotion of an art dealer, Dahlman. It seems her unique compositions composed of classic artistic pieces with famous cultural icons superimposed on the original character's heads are a hit. But there's more than Isabel is ready to accept. Dahlman attempts to threaten her with violence into signing an agent agreement, places some highly questionable photos on her website, and basically is intent on turning her artistic integrity into a humiliating ad campaign.
Add to the insanity a physicist father who has scientifically calculated the imminent end of the world, a mother who thinks anything goes as long as one is true to one's self, a philosophical billionaire philanthropist and his totally out-of-control thirteen year-old daughter, and being dumped by her boyfriend for a teenage Latino pop singer who alternately acts like an maniacal Britney Spears or a Madam.
The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse is to art what The Devil Wears Prada is to fashion. Insanity is the raucous norm, but Selwood does an excellent job at this satirical romp through the promotional L.A. scene, with a subtle, but no less powerful, set of inferences about being REAL despite the surrounding madness!
In the light of the flurry of books about art and the relationships behind them within the last few years, this book says more about art, the advertising world, and popular culture than the reader initially expects. And it's done simply but brilliantly!
Hurrah for you J. Selwood! Who do you think will "get it?"
Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on July 3, 2007
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Lisa Lutz
by Elizabeth Hickey
by Susanna Clarke
by Joshua Ferris
DVD ~ Robert Downey Jr.
See all Editorial Reviews
