Memoirs and Misinformation
A novel
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3.7 • 65 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "None of this is real and all of it is true." —Jim Carrey
Meet Jim Carrey. Sure, he's an insanely successful and beloved movie star drowning in wealth and privilege—but he's also lonely. Maybe past his prime. Maybe even ... getting fat? He's tried diets, gurus, and cuddling with his military-grade Israeli guard dogs, but nothing seems to lift the cloud of emptiness and ennui. Even the sage advice of his best friend, actor and dinosaur skull collector Nicolas Cage, isn't enough to pull Carrey out of his slump.
But then Jim meets Georgie: ruthless ingénue, love of his life. And with the help of auteur screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, he has a role to play in a boundary-pushing new picture that may help him uncover a whole new side to himself—finally, his Oscar vehicle! Things are looking up!
But the universe has other plans.
Memoirs and Misinformation is a fearless semi-autobiographical novel, a deconstruction of persona. In it, Jim Carrey and Dana Vachon have fashioned a story about acting, Hollywood, agents, celebrity, privilege, friendship, romance, addiction to relevance, fear of personal erasure, our "one big soul," Canada, and a cataclysmic ending of the world—apocalypses within and without.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
More Scooby Doo than Charlie Kaufman, Carrey's frenetic debut is a cartoonish fever dream darkened by middle-aged loneliness and existential terror. The story written in the third person with Vachon (Mergers and Acquisitions) about an actor named Jim Carrey who found fame and fortune in blockbusters such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and creative fulfillment in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind begins in medias res with Jim holed up in his Brentwood, Calif., fortress, feeling low enough to accept a role in the loathsome animated feature Hungry Hungry Hippos in Digital 3-D. The authors then jump back in time to Jim's short, disastrous marriage to a cable action star and an aborted Kaufman-penned Mao Zedong biopic amid flashes of Jim's bleak memories of growing up in Toronto. In between, Jim spars with his friend Nicholas Cage ("we battle ancient mojo in my black sand shadow dojo") and rants against capitalism and Hollywood. A surprisingly touching moment occurs on the set of Hippos, where Jim meets the digital essence of his idol, Rodney Dangerfield, who pays tribute to Jim's dead father. But for the most part, the characters are underdeveloped, and the sketchy plot loses momentum amid interchangeable set pieces. Dip in for the laughs, but slip out before the closing credits.
Customer Reviews
Completely surprised
This book took me by surprise. I’m an avid fan of Jim Carrey so I definitely wanted to check this out. I was never expecting this surreal & enthralling satire/critique on the ideals of self, celebrity, & legacy.
Don’t waste your money or time.
So so so bad. I will always finish a book but not this one. It was a bunch of boring babble.
Terrible
Maybe the worst book ever written.