The Big Hype
A Novel
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Paul Brock may have written a great book, but it isn't until impresario Mel Steiner gets ahold of him that he discovers what it really takes to be the Great American Novelist
By the time Paul Brock finishes his first novel, he has already lived half his life: He has a wife, kids, and a career writing movie scripts. So to fulfill his dreams of becoming a Novelist with a capital N, he has to go big, and that means turning to his star-maker friend, Mel Steiner. Soon Brock has a team of trainers, a stage show, a signature look, and even a movie deal. Self-respect, however, remains elusive.
The Big Hype is a rapier-sharp takedown of the book industry, and a brilliantly funny premonition of how authorship and celebrity culture have become dangerously intertwined.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Avery Corman, including rare images from the author's personal collection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The humorous spark flickers wanly in this creaky satire of hype in the book publishing industry. Emmy-winning TV scriptwriter Paul Brock writes a novel that he deserving recognition and is convinced he must promote himself, as a celebrity, in order to make it a bestseller. Financed by his old Borscht Belt pal, brash show-biz entrepreneur Mel Steiner, he becomes a musical star by singing comic songs about middle-class life, such as ``Children's Shoes Blues'' and ``Me and My Car.'' Brock makes a movie and wows fans at New York's Radio City Music Hall. His marriage suffers as he is swallowed up in glitz. Corman ( Kramer vs. Kramer ) stingingly parodies the Hollywoodization of publishing, its bloated star system, its puffery and the news media's opinion-shaping apparatus. But his points are obvious, the story's premise is strained and the joke wears thin. Walk-ons by a throng of real-life figures--including Saul Bellow, Stephen King, James Michener, Erma Bombeck and Bruce Springsteen--are exploitative and predictable.
