How I became A Famous Novelist
Steve Hely
Black Inc
Pete Tarslaw is America's foremost literary opportunist. By day he works for for EssayAides, a service for wealthy kids that turns their gibberish into polished college application essays. But one day watching a daytime show interview a best-selling novelist, that he begins to wonder whether he can better utilise his talents to gain fortune and fame.
With dreams of attracting an audience of 'young women in little sweaters and tight jeans, pliant and needy' - and the second alterioir motive of upstaging his ex girlfriend at her upcoming wedding - Pete sets offto Barnes & Noble to browse through the genres. To his dismay he finds writing thrillers with their regular twists, rapidly moving plot line and veiled threats too exhausting. Literary fiction on the other hand he finds much easier. Believing that by manipulating the reader with 'wordy spackle', he can trick them into thinking there is great wisdom within the novel's pages.
Hely does not hold back any punches and no one is spared from his poison pen - not even Oprah. It is at times an uncomfortable read - a bookseller, author and literary tragic, I too have sighed over adjective-chocked passages. In fact in the future, I might just refer back to Hely's book, not as a satirical gib but a reference to becoming a famous novelist! 4 stars
Steve Hely
Black Inc
Pete Tarslaw is America's foremost literary opportunist. By day he works for for EssayAides, a service for wealthy kids that turns their gibberish into polished college application essays. But one day watching a daytime show interview a best-selling novelist, that he begins to wonder whether he can better utilise his talents to gain fortune and fame.
With dreams of attracting an audience of 'young women in little sweaters and tight jeans, pliant and needy' - and the second alterioir motive of upstaging his ex girlfriend at her upcoming wedding - Pete sets offto Barnes & Noble to browse through the genres. To his dismay he finds writing thrillers with their regular twists, rapidly moving plot line and veiled threats too exhausting. Literary fiction on the other hand he finds much easier. Believing that by manipulating the reader with 'wordy spackle', he can trick them into thinking there is great wisdom within the novel's pages.
Hely does not hold back any punches and no one is spared from his poison pen - not even Oprah. It is at times an uncomfortable read - a bookseller, author and literary tragic, I too have sighed over adjective-chocked passages. In fact in the future, I might just refer back to Hely's book, not as a satirical gib but a reference to becoming a famous novelist! 4 stars
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