Glamourpuss: A Novel - Softcover

McLaughlin, Christian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452272653 ISBN 13: 9780452272651

Publisher: Plume, 1995

Synopsis

Alex Young, the twentysomething heartthrob of the hottest Hollywood soap is still marveling at his good fortune for landing such a plum part when all hell breaks loose. A notoriously disreputable supermarket tabloid catches Alex in a steamy kiss with another man, causing Alex to wonder if the glamour of Hollywood is worth all the trouble and heartache.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Your basic boy-meets-boy love story, with a daytime-drama twist. Alex Young just got a three-year contract to play a villain on the fifth-ranked soap opera ``Hearts Crossing.'' But his life is far from perfect. He's still pining over Nick Miller, the beautiful lawyer he couldn't free from a codependent relationship with an egocentric dud back in Austin, Texas. He's trying to get on with his life by dating a drop-dead-gorgeous sitcom actor named Trevor Renado, but finds he just can't say ``I love you'' back. When a trashy magazine publishes a photo of Alex kissing Trevor goodbye at the airport, and Alex refuses to deny that he's gay, his career is affected. His publicist tries to get him seen on the town with a lesbian the PR man also represents. (Of course, Alex refuses.) A self-important soap starlet will no longer kiss him, and the producer accommodates her by re-blocking the scene. (Alex feigns cooperative innocence.) Then the show's writer creates an unbelievable ``homoerotic'' story line for Alex whereby viewers are ``shocked, outraged, delighted and titillated in various combinations.'' The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation protests the negative image of gays conveyed by Alex's sadistic character as he uses a mysterious drug to make straight characters gay. A sexually obsessed fan who calls himself Astaroth (after the wizard in Bedknobs and Broomsticks) won't stop stalking him. And the fragile relationship with Trevor falters because Trevor can't handle the publicity about Alex being gay. But we know it's all going to work out--and it does: Both Alex's career and his love life are better at the novel's end than they were at the beginning. A light, predictable, enjoyable debut--as meaningful as an afternoon of soaps, but much more entertaining. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Life imitates art imitating life in this slyly amusing debut about the tribulations of a soap star-"I had put a lethal dose of poison into Cyrinda's milk shake two weeks before, but the bitch had lived through it," confesses evil Simon Arable, main character of the soap opera Heart's Crossing, as the novel opens. In real life, Simon is Alex Young-funny, hunky, witty and gay. And thereby hangs a tale: a delicious and gossipy behind-the-scenes peek at daytime TV, a frenetic take on closet doors being involuntarily flung open, a slightly syrupy saga of Alex pining for the guy back home in Texas he can't have. Though McLaughlin's writing is occasionally flaccid and his zingers fall a bit short of their targets, his immensely likable hero will surely grab readers' funnybones and hearts-romantics in particular will root for true love to triumph. The novel's back-and-forth time frame proves somewhat confusing, though the assorted antics of castoff boyfriends, starstruck fans (both in letters and in person) and righteous zealots more than amply compensate for any minor shortcomings.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0452272653
• ISBN 13: 9780452272651
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256