The Locklear Letters
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
The Locklear Letters' is a farcical look at celebrity worship in today’s society through the eyes of Sid Straw, an affable, if not boring, software salesman who tries to rekindle an acquaintanceship with his former college classmate turned Hollywood starlet Heather Locklear. His innocent letter requesting an autographed picture begins a bizarre turn of events that eventually costs him his job, foils his romantic intentions toward a co-worker, drains his finances, and generally ruins his life. Sid, a Don Quixote character with large blind spots regarding the fate of his one-sided correspondence with the movie star and his own behavior, cannot escape the wrath of lawyers, public relations bulldogs, angry bosses, and ex-girlfriends that drags his life down the tubes. Until he fights back.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thirteen years after the publication of his well-received first novel, A Thousand Benjamins, Kun returns with a cheeky take on celebrity worship, tracing the downward spiral of an annoying salesman through an ongoing, obsessive series of letters he writes to his famous college classmate, Heather Locklear. Sid Straw, the marketing director for a Baltimore software company, claims to have known Locklear when they were both at UCLA. His fixation with the actress gets him into trouble when a series of badgering letters sent to Locklear's agent to secure a personalized photo results in a cross-country restraining order. On the home front, the 40ish Straw loses his new girlfriend when she learns of his obsession with Locklear, and is fired from his job after a series of Locklear-related misunderstandings. Straw sets out in search of a new job, fending off depression and despair with ludicrously chummy letters to Locklear as well as bumbling missives to family, erstwhile friends, legal counsel and assorted service people. Kun overcomes the limitations of his epistolary format with some inventive maneuvering that fills in the gaps in the story line and keeps the letters from becoming monotonous. The highlight is a tongue-in-cheek climax in which Straw gets back at his various correspondents-cum-tormenters by hiring a litigation-savvy lawyer, then entices his object of worship to put in an unlikely appearance at their college reunion (or has Straw simply gone off the deep end and imagined it all?). Kun's lighthearted humor pokes clever fun at our ongoing obsession with fame and celebrity.
