From Publishers Weekly
Putting his experience as a gossip columnist for the New York Post's notorious Page Six to good use, Spiegelman presents a down-and-dirty insider's look at the life of a scandalmonger in his second novel (after 2003's Everyone's Burning). Leon Koch, a reporter for an unnamed New York City tabloid owned by some unsavory figures from down under, has long lived a life of ennui, not caring much about anything. His attitude begins to change after he receives a disturbing anonymous call from a woman blaming him for the suicide of a talent agent, the subject of a recent gossip column. A homicide detective takes an interest in the case, and soon Koch and his colleagues find themselves at the center of a scandal. In order to unravel the mystery, Koch plunges into the bleak and untrustworthy world of celebrities, publicists and others who follow in their wake. While the solution to the crime is nothing special, Spiegelman has created a unique character in a searing look at the world of professional gossip. (May)
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Last we saw of Leon Koch ( Everyone's Burning, 2003), he was drinking and drugging his way through nighttime Queens. Now he is in Manhattan, writing a newspaper gossip column, and his debauched nights are devoted to the search for dirt: "an empire of addicts, psychos, snitches, all of us so interested in each other, each other's business, each other' s bodies, every whisper repeated, every orgasm an item . . ." We pick up Koch's disintegrating life after a notorious talent agent has killed himself. Was he driven to it by one of Koch's columns, or was he murdered? The police like Koch as a suspect, forcing the writer to save his job by figuring out what happened. Spiegelman, a former New York Post gossip columnist, nails the frenetic, drug-fueled, celebrity-nightlife scene with crackling dialogue and go-for-the--jugular cynicism, combining Bright Lights, Big City with the classic tabloid film Sweet Smell of Success. A too-sweet girlfriend adds an unwelcome wisp of sentimentality to this very dry martini of a novel, but don't worry: a little secondhand sunlight is no match for the dark clouds that hover over Leon's world. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"A darkly comic view of gossip journalism, Welcome to Yesterday rips through our celebrity-obsessed culture like Nathaniel West on speed." -- Thomas H. Cook, author of Red Leaves
"Dark, whip-smart, and downright fun. The dialogue bites like sharpened teeth and the characters won't leave your head." -- Brad Meltzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Tenth Justice and The Zero Game
"Spiegelman brilliantly marks his territory as that place where glamour and darkness meet." -- Alicia Erian, author of Towelhead
About the Author
Ian Spiegelman grew up in Bayside, Queens, where he began his career as a journalist. A veteran of the gossip world, he reported for New York magazine and the New York Posts "Page Six" and is a frequent contributor to Details magazine. His first novel, Everyones Burning, was published in June 2003.
