How I Became a Famous Novelist

Locations
Call Number: Fiction
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"This is the story of [Pete] Tarslaw's effort to write the best-sellingest best seller of all time, and what its success costs him in the end."--Back cover.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

3.5 stars submitted by patrice on September 12, 2010, 3:07pm " started out strong- there were plenty of laugh out loud moments, but dragged for the last 100 pages. there's no real development of plot later in the book. Things just happen, and when the author SAYS he's gong to explain, he never does. turns out, t ...more started out strong- there were plenty of laugh out loud moments, but dragged for the last 100 pages. there's no real development of plot later in the book. Things just happen, and when the author SAYS he's gong to explain, he never does. turns out, the novel has all of the pitfalls of poor storyline development that the "fake" novel did. It gets three stars because I love how Hely tears apart the current state of fiction. It'd be four if he kept a consistent pace.

Definitely better than "The Tornado Ashes Club" submitted by Sara W on June 20, 2011, 7:51pm This book was hilarious. I loved the premise of a post-college slacker who decides contemporary literary fiction is a racket and builds a formula to create a blockbuster. It simultaneously incorporates and mocks components of the industry just perfectly. I didn't care as much about the ex-girlfriend angle and wedding, but I'm basically fine with whatever Hely wants to use for incentive for his protagonist to launch his genius plan.

I practically showed the faux New York Times best sellers list pages to everyone within reaching distance on the plane where I was reading the book. He just nails all the best real-life characters on that list, making up dead-on descriptions for fake Patricia Cornwell, fake Clive Cussler, fake Malcolm Gladwell books and filling out the lists with phony microhistories and paranormal romance garbage. So good.

I'd definitely assign Pete Tarslaw's "The Tornado Ashes Club" to my book club! It's hackneyed and false, but it's hackneyed and false according to a well-thought-out formula.