Pretty Things

Compo, Susan

ISBN 10: 1953835139 / ISBN 13: 9781953835130

Published by The Visible Spectrum, 2026

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9781953835130

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Pretty Things
• Publisher: The Visible Spectrum
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1953835139
• ISBN 13: 9781953835130
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A sparkling satire of Hollywood stars and wannabes, packed with “dead-on observations of L.A. culture, show business, and human nature” (Booklist).

Susan Compo’s ­narrative voice — satirical and allusive — has earned her comparisons to Dorothy Parker, and her characters display a similarly irresistible blend of smart-ass wit, despair, and whistling-in-the-dark bravado. Following two highly regarded story collections, Compo’s debut novel takes a sharp-eyed look at LA’s culture industry.

Talent agent Giselle Entwistle has her hands full juggling her oddball roster of show-business clients. There’s Adon, who’s struggling to make the transition from teen idol to mature star with the aid of a goatee; and would-be rock impresario Hedda Hophead, “aggressive as junk mail and just as relentless.” There’s country singer Len Tingle, whose career has as many ups and downs as his love affair with Giselle; and Tupperware demonstrator Troy Harder, “a living legend in food storage,” who Giselle fears might want to plastic-wrap her. Not to mention child prodigy belter Frances Culligan, who seems to have disappeared.

And then there’s Pandra, whose haunting memoir of growing up in suburban Orange County and coming of age back in ’70s glitter-era Los Angeles (platform boots, Rodney’s English Disco) forms a book within this book. Giselle hopes to get Pandra’s true story published - though it does bring up the matter of a possible murder . . .

About the Author

Susan Compo grew up in Orange County, California, where she published the pioneering fanzine “ ´ ” (subtitled “The Fanzine for the Blank Generation”). She is the author of two story collections, Life After Death and Malingering, and the novel Pretty Things, as well as Warren Oates: A Wild Life and Earthbound: David Bowie and The Man Who Fell To Earth. She collaborated with artist Mark Wardel on the book David Bowie and ‘Cracked Actor’: The Fly in the Milk, and contributed to the monograph Derek Boshier: Reinventor (an essay on the artist’s painting David Bowie and Teresa Cornelys). Shepard, her biography of the playwright and actor Sam Shepard, will be published in 2027.