Starbucks Nation: A Novel [Hardcover]

Chris Ver Wiel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2008

Morgan Beale is a pop icon and hates every second of it. He begins adapting the latest bestseller, The Chihuahua in the Blue Prada Bag, into a blockbuster movie just before his celebutante wife starts remodeling their Hollywood home, driving Beale to a hotel. Dodging the paparazzi one morning on his way to Starbucks, he spots his writing partner, Luke, who has been dead for over a decade, and who is staring into a mysterious hole in the ground. Driving headlong into the hole, they discover the surreal otherworld of Starbucks Nation, a film set littered with characters from BealeÕs life and the novel heÕs adapting, including a talking Chihuahua and an elite commando unit of ethnic cookie-making elves. Mercilessly lampooning our fascination with reality television, celebrity blunders, and mindless infotainment, STARBUCKS NATION brilliantly showcases the absurdities of modern society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Delivering an exhaustive inventory of L.A. archetypes, this debut by the writer/director of Who is Cletis Tout? fails to offer insight into the media-blitzed circus at which it discharges its big guns. Morgan Beale, a jaded screenwriter of "mythic" stature busy adapting bestselling book The Chihuahua in the Blue Prada Bag for the screen, one day runs into his long-dead writing partner, Luke. Luke quickly entices Beale into a Hearse, and so begins a hallucinatory if largely incoherent trip into an alternate universe where Ver Wiel allows Beale to go about shooting fish in a barrel. Beal targets "chimp" producers, paparazzi, reality TV hosts and contestants, actors, celebutantes, critics ("I hate critics"), TV anchors (and their segment producers), FEMA and his starlet wife-"the whore of the corn." Unfortunately, this reads mostly like a score-settling hit-list than Tinseltown parody, and it rarely rises above the level of a drugged-out diatribe-particularly during a lengthy, surrealist delirium involving a talking Chihuahua. Beale's bilious outpouring makes his Hollywood shooting gallery almost endearing by comparison.
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Review

“Chris Ver Wiel casts the coffee giant as the ultimate empty vessel in this satirical attack on the so-called culture of Hollywood.” (USA Today ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (May 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559708689
• ISBN-13: 978-1559708685
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,110,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Have read first 60 pages, not laughing yet?, November 17, 2011

By 

Gao Laoshi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starbucks Nation: A Novel (Hardcover)

The book just seems so bitter and cynical - I don't really see the humor. I appreciate social commentary, and satire (Vonnegut fan, for instance), but reading this book I just feel like I'm listening to a lonely, unhappy person's negative rants.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, thank you!, May 16, 2008

By 

Charlotte Audet "a reviewer" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Starbucks Nation: A Novel (Hardcover)

Brilliant, original and funny! Thank you Chris Ver Wiel for coming up with something telling and far enough out there that those who think there is nothing new, ever, will thank you! I thank you! Way to go to piss off the very people who will review your book too! Love it!

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hate Starbucks, but LOVE Starbucks Nation, July 19, 2008

By 

Mark Johnson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Starbucks Nation: A Novel (Hardcover)

I really did enjoy this book. I love the way the author pokes fun at the LA "hip-whazee" and entertainment crowd. I only gave it four stars because I got through it too quickly...I wanted more!