Unlubricated: A Novel [Paperback]

Arthur Nersesian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2004

A Fierce and Hysterical Tale
Of Self-Destruction On
The Road to Being Discovered

Hannah is a struggling actress living in New York's Tribeca, and like any young thesp she is bent on success: finding paying jobs that offer good material, not just mindless roles for eager and nubile bodies. When she comes across a lost play by a dead 1980s icon -- brilliantly written, with the perfect role that will display her acting chops -- she thinks she's hit the jackpot.

But when she becomes the play's de facto producer and lands a gig on an indie film, she's forced to deal with the nonstop whirlwind of backstage maneuverings and outrageous personalities ... and with the fact that she witnessed the falling of the Twin Towers from blocks away. When Hannah loses her coveted role to an old rival, she learns a shocking truth that could bring her whole world tumbling down.

Dynamic and moving, with trademark Nersesian moments of cutting humor and truth, Unlubricated is a tale of down-and-dirty off-Broadway New York theatre, sex, love, and life in the wake of September 11.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With a title like Unlubricated and an epigram by radical feminist Valerie Solanas ("Eliminate men and women will shape up"), Nersesian (Chinese Takeout, etc.) foregrounds his countercultural chops in his latest chronicle of lower Manhattan's demimonde. Nersesian's raw, smutty sensibility is perfect for capturing the gritty city artistic life, but this novel has as much substance as style. In the dramatic, agonizing aftermath of 9/11, a scrappy young actress named Hannah struggles to make something of herself. When she overhears a man discussing Unlubricated, a "lost work" by a deceased Solanasesque author named Lilly Bull, she strong-arms him (after all, she saved his life in college) into letting her act in and produce the play. The book quickly develops into a fast-paced, sexy ensemble play-within-a-play, populated by a cast of wonderfully drawn characters, including a pathologically self-important British director and a drug-addled actor on a very slippery slope. Nersesian continuously ratchets up the suspense, always keeping the fate of the production uncertain—and at the last minute he throws a curveball that makes the previous chaos calm by comparison. Nersesian is a first-rate observer of his native New York, and while the book is a little long-winded and slow to start, and the denouement feels a bit hokey, these are minor squeaks in an otherwise slick, well-oiled machine.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Nersesian makes us eager to see what happens when the curtain finally rises.” (New York Times Book Review )

“This book was a real delight--fast and funny and pure New York. Unlubricated has only one flaw: it ends.” (Steve Kluger, author of Almost Like Being in Love and Last Days of Summer )

“[Nersesian] knows his territory intimately and paces the escalating chaos with a precision that would do Wodehouse proud.” (Time Out New York )

“A pitch-perfect approximation of the New York artistic life.” (Entertainment Weekly )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060734116
• ISBN-13: 978-0060734114
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,219,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Arthur Nersesian is the author of eight novels, including the best-selling The Fuck-Up (more than 100,000 copies sold), dogrun (MTV/Simon & Schuster), Manhattan Loverboy (Akashic), Suicide Casanova (Akashic), Chinese Takeout (HarperCollins), Unlubricated

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars another great one, October 4, 2004

By 

Garp Owens (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unlubricated: A Novel (Paperback)

First and foremost: thank you Arthur Nersesian.
This novel was like his others in that it was a fantastic read, had well developed characters, dynamic in that Nersesian has given them an original personality with their own original drives and personalties; and yet they are people we identify with because we know or have known them in life. Nersesian has once again put us in the life of a starving artist in New York. Instead of the art world of New York coupled with the life of living out of a van in Chinese Take Out, we follow an actress/producer through the world of just what actresses will do to be casted and also what writers are sometimes forced to do just to be published coupled with eviction court and just how hard it is to find a reasonable living arrangement. The naivety of the publisher and also the writer coupled with their strong New York street smarts creates a powerful dichotomy that seems to mirror the confusion and horror of the backdrop of this novel: New York city late 2001. Arthur Nersesian shines here as well as he deals this dark hour in our American history and of course in the history of New York City. As I saw the unbelieveably surreal horror that was September eleventh unfold again before me through the eyes of a New Yorker I began to empathize with the people that have had their lives and their homes changed forever. I also sweel with pride now when I put on my I "heart" New York shirt...through Nersesians writings I have truly developed a love for the city and also understand what makes the citizens so strong and special.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good novel, December 21, 2008

By 

J-Man "J" (NYC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unlubricated: A Novel (Paperback)

I just read this New York novel over about a week's time, and found the story compelling me more and more to invest myself in it. It's a good story, filled with lots of realistically selfish and jerk-like characters all bunched together into situations that require alcohol to tolerate the time, or some other carrot like sex, money or fame. The author chose to put his story up against a difficult backdrop of history, which I found inconveniently and unexpectedly awkward and tragic - just like the real thing.

With lots of details to the ins & outs of producing a theatrical play and narrated by a robustly focused female protagonist voice, "Unlubricated" starts off with a stiff pain that grows a bit soar, eventually coming to an intense, slippery and messy end.

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat amusing, but long-winded, August 25, 2007

By 

a. "devoted reader" (NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unlubricated: A Novel (Paperback)

Gets bogged down in details, and the writing could be a lot more crisp (see Moody's The Diviners - a similar take on indie film). Mostly likeable for its use of NYC locales, while the confused characters try to put on independent theater productions, while sleeping around as much as possible. The voice of the protagonist is not convincing -- I doubt any woman, lipstick lesbians included, thinks about sex in baseball metaphors. Maybe the author thought he could get away with lapses in point of view if he made her a lesbian? Don't they think like men? I don't know. She just wasn't convincing for me, and it wasn't funny enough to read as satire. Read The Diviners instead.