by Steve Hely
Paperback Original
What Pete Tarslaw wants is simple enough: a realistic amount of fame that will open new avenues of sexual opportunity; the kind of financial comfort that will allow him to spend his life pursuing hobbies such as boating or skeet shooting at his stately home by the ocean or a scenic lake; andperhaps mostly importantlythe chance to humiliate his ex-girlfriend at her wedding. This is the story of how he succeeds in getting it all, and what it costs him in the end.
Narrated by an unlikely literary legend, How I Became A Famous Novelist pinballs from the post-college slums of Boston, to the fear-drenched halls of Manhattan's publishing houses, from the gloomy purity of Montana's foremost writing workshop to the hedonistic hotel bars of the Sunset Strip. The horrifying, hilarious tale of how Pete's "pile of garbage" called The Tornado Ashes Club became the most talked about, blogged about, read, admired, and reviled novel in America will change everything you think you know about literature, appearance, truth, beauty, and those people out there, somewhere in America, who still care about books.
"Biting, hilarious and improbably affectionate." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. A satiric, facetious and laugh-out-loud funny first novel." - Kirkus Reviews
"[W]ill delight fans of 'loser lit' novels such as Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and Michael Chabon's Wonderboys" - Booklist
"[S]lams the writing, publishing, bookselling, and book-reviewing world in a funny, thought-provoking, cynical story about being successful for all the wrong reasons." - Library Journal
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Hely is a comedy writer for David Letterman and the Fox cartoon comedy American Dad, and coauthor of The Ridiculous Race.
The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S's: The power to see, to sense, and to say. ...
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