The Trouble Boy: A Novel [Hardcover]

Tom Dolby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

In the tradition of Bright Lights, Big City and Less Than Zero, Tom Dolby has written a searing debut novel about going after what you really want without losing yourself in the process. Powerfully written, keenly felt, The Trouble Boy heralds an exciting new voice in fiction.

"This is about fame and celebrity and the lengths to which people will go to have a taste of it..."

At twenty-two, Toby Griffin wants it all-fame, fortune, an Oscar-winning screenplay and a good-looking boyfriend by his side. For now, what he's got is a freelance writing job at a tanking online magazine, a walk-up sublet in the East Village and "the boys," a young posse of preppy Upper East Siders with a taste for high fashion, top-shelf liquor and other men.

But for Toby, downing vodka cranberries and falling in and out of lust with a series of guys he knows as Subway Boy, Loft Boy and Goth Boy is getting old. So is being pursued by his best friend Jamie while secretly desiring his co-worker, Donovan, a sexual adventurer who seems intent on conducting his own Kinsey report in bedrooms across the city. That all changes when Toby gets the chance of a lifetime-working as a personal assistant to hip, ruthless film mogul, Cameron Cole. Picking up Cameron's steamed veggies and typing up his memos is Toby's entrée to the big time, moving in a dizzying crowd of celebrities and power makers. Suddenly he's swilling champagne with scenemakers like publicist Ariana Richards, Hollywood bombshell Jordan Gardner, and club performer Lola Copacabana. In this decadent, drug-fueled world of VIP lounges, endless networking and relentless hype, Toby discovers that nothing is what is seems and that anything and anyone can be spun into PR gold. Though he's making friends with all the right people. Toby realizes that succeeding in Manhattan isn't as easy as he thought-until the one tragic night that changes his future forever and puts him in a position of power he never could have imagined.

But with Toby's name suddenly becoming Page Six material, his life is coming unglued. And as his professional contacts betray him and his friends reveal troubling secrets, his choices become that much harder-and that much more important. Now, in his first year on his own, Toby Griffin is about to learn the price of getting everything he ever wanted...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Yale-educated gay freelance writer navigates the shark-infested waters of Manhattan hoping to score a screenplay deal and a loyal boyfriend in this hip and sexy if predictable debut novel. The son of an upper-crust clothing designer, young Toby Griffin is plagued with acne and depression, but gets lucky when he's hired to be a nightclub reviewer for a struggling Web site and quickly becomes a "nightlife contender," impressing new friends Jamie, Donovan, Brett, David and Alejandro. Though the social scene is all about hooking up, Toby does manage a dinner date or two, but most end disastrously, including one with an egotistical former Real World cast member and another with a sleazy Polo store clerk. When both the Web site and an exciting proposal to co-write a memoir by transsexual performer Lola Copacabana fizzle out, Toby begins work for hotshot producer Cameron Cole. A premiere party with lots of cocaine and booze sets the stage for a deadly Lizzie Grubmanâ€"style "accident" and a coverup that tests Toby's allegiance to his glitzy cohorts. As the media spotlight shines on Toby, he begins to lose interest in his tour of hot nightspots filled with cool Mr. Wrongs. Will our almost-charming hero ever find someone worthy? There are few surprises here, but Dolby's writing is smooth and his flashy scene-setting spot-on.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075820616X
• ISBN-13: 978-0758206169
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,241,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tom Dolby is the author of the young adult novels Secret Society and The Trust: A Secret Society Novel, as well as the best-selling novel The Trouble Boy and the boarding school novel The Sixth Form. He is also the co-editor, with Melissa de la Cruz, of the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: True Tales of Love, Lust, and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Tom was born in London and raised in San Francisco, and is a graduate of Yale University. He currently lives in Manhattan, where he is working on his fifth novel, among other projects. You can find him online at www.tomdolby.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Quick fun, but nothing remains, March 29, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Trouble Boy: A Novel (Hardcover)

The novel is a fast read with moments of fun, but the author seems unable to create a memorable character. Toby neds a lawyer at one point, but worries he can't afford one, even though his parents pay his rent in Manhattan and his mother just sold her company for $200 million. Huh? Many moments like this make the novel seem rushed.

Alos, why does this novel have to be shelved in the gay section? It seemed pretty mainstream to me. I hate this hyper-classification.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Promising Debut Novel, June 1, 2004

By 

Michael T. Rognlien (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Trouble Boy: A Novel (Hardcover)

Looking only at the inside flap of the book (come on, we're gay, we do it) it's hard to imagine that a strikingly handsome author of Dolby descent would be able to write a novel about being (or perceiving oneself as being) .. well, average, insecure and confused as to one's place in the world.

Actually READING the book, though, you find that his main character is all of those things. Cute and young enough to possibly make up for not being TOTALLY hot, Toby, the main character, seems to do nothing but screw up opportunities to 'elevate' himself to the A-list in a snotty, screwed-up New York of the new millenium.

The beauty of this book, though, is that like Sex & the City and Less than Zero - two books this one has been likened to - it has nothing to do with New York or snotty A-lister's or even young almost-hot men.. rather, it's a story about a person coming of age in a time where everything seems possible, everything seems desirable. His Toby, however, is not unlike the rest of us: he wants to be successful, he wants to find love, and he wants to maintain his sense of self but has to do so in spite of horrible bosses, frenemies (the one Sex and the City reference that fits - the episode where friends act like enemies) and a bank account hovering just above zero.

The approachability and enjoyability of this novel is not based on the fact that it's glitzy or set in New York or filled with drama and scandal - that has been done, to varying levels of success, by other authors. What made this book so enjoyable was the fact that the main character was real, honest about his vanities and shortcomings, and in the end decided that being a good person and doing the right thing for his friends, family and self, brought him the happiness that everything else had not.

(Side note: for those of you who read and enjoyed Bart Yates' "Leave Myself Behind," the main character in this book reminds me of a grown up "Noah" - and the fact that Mr. Yates endorses the book on the dust cover should persuade you to read the book!)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Trouble Book, February 25, 2005

By 

Frank Berkeley (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Trouble Boy: A Novel (Hardcover)

The best part of this book is the inside back dust jacket where there is a really hot picture of the author. (Unfortunately, his website is pretty bare bones with no additional hot pics.) As for the novel, it's good but not great. There's just not much substance to the story. A plus is that the book is free of the continuity mistakes, typos and grammatical errors frequently found in books of this genre, as it was published by a professional house. (The fact that I'm even making this comment relates back to the minimalist substance of the story.) But it is a first novel and we can hope that Tom Dolby will grow and grow. The potential is certainly there.