Books from my Amazon Wish List (BAWL): Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs (607 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.14 on 8 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (View user info) at 2006-04-09 23:40:05 EDT
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Sellevision is the best novel in the world that starts with a man exposing his dick on National TV. It is only for great literature that I am willing to risk so much.
In all seriousness, Sellvision is a rockin' book, and although it lacks a bit of the rawness that his assorted memoirs have. The first time I read anything of Burroughs', his voice felt slightly familiar underneath the newness of finding a great new author. Since then, I have obviously enjoyed his books immensely, but I have also tried to figure out who he sounded so much like. It was the difference between fiction and memoir that finally jogged my memory - Chuck Palahniuk, the mind that brought along Fight Club and basically cornered the market on "whoa, that's fucked up." It's the latter, of course, that Burroughs so resembles...many times amongst his pages, you can't believe what you're reading, but it is so raw, and so real that you do in spite of yourself. There is a gulf between Burroughs and Palahniuk, for sure, but there is also a very similar edge to the writing, a very similar "holy shit" to their stories. They are both fantastic, for a variety of reasons, and Sellevision fits with their similarities - you find yourself incredulous of the events, but the characters are so real that you feel not only like you know them, but like there is nothing strange in their behavior.
I will say that Sellevision is too short, which can be a good or bad thing in a book. In this case it's a good thing, because the reason it feels too short is that you want to know more about the people in it, and what happens to them. Again, the descriptive abilities of the author that I lauded in my last review are at work, and he manages to efficiently create an excellent grab bag of people in relatively short order. One pratfall that nabs many authors in a scenario like this where all or most of the characters have the same basic job is a certain inevitable sameness...you lose track of the differences between the characters. It takes a lot of skill to avoid that one, and Burroughs manages it perfectly...the true brilliance of it, however, is that the differences that puts into each of his characters highlight myriad prejudices and glass ceilings that are inherent in both society and the shiny world of television.
The best way to summarize the book is to explain the characters. It's important to note that even if this is fiction, there is definitely a HELL of a lot of Burroughs in every single one of the characters. In his other books, he speaks extensively about his aspirations towards the camera, and his various machinations and projects taken out with that goal in mind. They are all here, as through they took root perfectly. It's a weird world that he's envisioned himself, and that may be because he never managed to break into it, or it could be because that's how he sees it and chooses to keep a distance.
Peggy Jean Smythe is a superstar in the Sellevision firmament, until she begins getting emails about her personal appearance from a fan. The emails point out those tiny little things of the sort that you always fixate on...someone mentions them and you can't stop thinking about them. Eventually the constant nitpicking, along with the hostile reactions to Peggy Jean's pointed nonresponsiveness to the fan's communiques, drives Peggy Jean far along a downward spiral, and she can think of nothing else, forgetting about her life as a whole, including her kids and husband.
Max Andrews kicks off the book, and he is the aforementioned penis-flasher. He is a lonely gay Sellevision host, and you follow his search for a new job after the quickly-famous flash makes him poison to almost every other network out there, as well as many radio stations and commercial producers. His is a very sympathetic character, and as you leave him, the light at the end of the tunnel is coming into view, but his real glory is in his pathetic humanity...you can feel his despair and his frustration. When he finally finds his way to the outskirts of the porn industry, you are begging for something, anything to work out well for him.
Peggy Jean and Max are the major players in the book, fleshed out by the affair going on between Leigh and Howard, and Bebe's obsessive shopping. There are other bit players, and they serve to push the main characters further and higher in their drive to be the best at Sellevision. They're the color commentary.
This would make an AWESOME beach or travel book...it's a quick read with an engaging story. It also has that "thing" where you can leave off and pick up the book without losing the entire thread of the story. The book is written as a series of interwoven vignettes, connected but also separate. This novel has a lot more heft than a lot of the fluffy books usually pushed as options for trips and the beach, which is a welcome change for those of us who like our books and authors a little fucked up. As the summer rolls around, I encourage you to grab a copy to throw in your bag and pick away at in idle moments - you will NOT be disappointed.
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Fat Girl, by Judith Moore - http://www.ubersite.com/m/85227
Dry, by Augusten Burroughs - http://www.ubersite.com/m/85410
User Reviews
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2006-04-11 08:33:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2006-04-09 23:41:04 (#)
Ranking: 0
Oh, I forgot to mention...y'all might want to get a cover for the book when you get it, because those teeth will freak you RIGHT the fuck out.
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They must have put out a new edition. The version I read just had a television on the cover.
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2006-04-10 21:35:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I haven't read a good book in a while. I've been reading junk lately.
I need to cut it out with the trashy novels.
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2006-04-10 19:13:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yeah I love him. I haven't read Dry or Sellevision, but I just read Magical Thinking and thought most of it was pretty decent. There is definitely something about him that makes him seem immediately familiar.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-04-10 11:36:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Shlongy is the anti-fiction.
Submitted by Ducky (user info) at 2006-04-10 04:44:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I've got this book, along with Dry, Magical Thinking, and Running With Scissors. RWS is the first of his books that I read, and if you liked Sellevision, you will FUCKING LOVE it...definitely the best of the four. If Augusten Burroughs wasn't gay, I'd probably be stalking him.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-04-10 01:03:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2006-04-09 23:55:52 (#)
Ranking: 2
Hey! Tell your book to hurry up and get to my house! I ordered it what seems like forever ago!
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Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-04-10 01:01:34 (#)
Ranking: 0
Did you ask for a typo-free edition? That takes longer.
A sex and gore-free edition? You have a long wait.
Shoulda ordered through Exlibris. That takes about a week.
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2006-04-09 23:44:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Auto +2 Rocky Horror Picture Show
Teeth!
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2006-04-09 23:41:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Oh, I forgot to mention...y'all might want to get a cover for the book when you get it, because those teeth will freak you RIGHT the fuck out.