We're So Famous - Softcover

Jaime Clarke

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747554226 ISBN 13: 9780747554226

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2001

Synopsis

A hilarious, unpredictable satire about three talentless girls, and their quest to become famous.

"If you haven't heard of us, your friends probably have. . . " So begins this pitch-perfect satire about Daisy, Paque, and Stella, three girls from Arizona who are hungry for fame. Styling themselves after their idols, Bananarama, they form a pop band called Masterful Johnson. It isn't long before Stella quits the band to head for LA and become an actress, where she ends up rooting through celebrity garbage, performing macabre dinner theater, and lusting after bad-boy rocker Brian Metro. Paque and Daisy, however, continue with the band. After a string of embarrassing misadventures-including a fashion show at the local mall where they share the stage with a ten-year-old exhibitionistic gymnast-they're about ready to call it quits. But when a senator's son and his friend are mysteriously murdered, Paque and Daisy, the last people to see the victims alive, become the prime suspects in the case. Cashing in on their sudden notoriety, they record an EP, entitled We're Masterful Johnson, and the adventure is only beginning. . .

Funny and clever, suffused with droll 80's nostalgia, We're So Famous, like the best satire, is fresh and compelling on the surface, and wicked underneath.

About this title

About the Author

Jaime Clarke was born in Kalispell, Montana, and educated at the University of Arizona and Bennington College. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

From Publishers Weekly

In its attempt to skewer our obsession with celebrity culture, this trifle of a tale about three teenage girls and their quest for fame and fortune only manages to injure itself. Narrated in three parts, the novel follows the exploits of Paque, Stella and Daisy, talentless teenagers from Phoenix, Ariz., with an overwhelming desire for fame. Obsessed with the British girl group Bananarama (Paque and Daisy are avid '80s aficionados), the two record an amateur single that gains notoriety when they are linked to a local murder case. But this plot line is abandoned, and their singing career goes nowhere following a disastrous live performance. Stella, a struggling actress living in Hollywood, works in a dinner theater reenacting celebrity deaths (her obsession) with her new boyfriend, an actor who can't get beyond failed television pilots. Paque and Daisy join her in Hollywood to work on a no-budget movie with a no-name director. Will Paque and Daisy hit the big time? Will Stella's stalking of bad-boy rocker Bryan Metro bear fruit? Will readers be at all amused by the book's incessant name-dropping, pop culture factoids and the postmodern trick of slipping screenplays and faux fan letters into the narrative? Not likely although those who find Nick Hornby and Bret Easton Ellis too challenging might be engaged for a moment or two. Satire needs to be smarter than its subject, and unfortunately this fable is neither wicked nor clever enough to wade out from the shallows it purports to spoof. (Apr. 9) Forecast: A blurb from Ellis probably won't do much to boost sales after the first 15 minutes, and it's hard to tell who the intended audience is: readers under 30 won't be familiar with much of the '80s arcana and those over 30 won't have the patience for the puerile protagonists.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0747554226
• ISBN 13: 9780747554226
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224