St. Famous

by Jonathan Dee

Abducted by Victor Hartley in the middle of a riot, aspiring writer Paul Soloway becomes a reluctant hero at the center of a racial maelstrom. By the author of The Liberty Campaign.

Genres: Fiction

348 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Jonathan Dee is the author of six novels. He is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, a frequent contributor to Harper's, and a former senior editor of The Paris Review. He teaches in the graduate writing programs at Columbia University and the New School.

Reviews

[Maya Lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Dee seems to tackle a different industry with each of his novels: finance in The Privileges, advertising in Palladio, public relations in A Thousand Pardons. Here, publishing draws his attention, and the result is philosophic hilarity, with agents, editors, and Hollywood executives put under the microscope. Writers will find St. Famous wonderful, in equal parts funny, provocative and thoughtful. A meditation on the culture of celebrity and how books (and their accompanying film/TV spin-offs) are pitched and received, St. Famous raises questions about the intersection of art and commerce, fame, and artistic compromise. In this, I found it cathartic. Somehow, Dee manages to simultaneously delve into race in America, the justice system, and how public scandal is presented and perceived. If that sounds like a lot, Dee makes it work. My only criticism is that of his novels, I found this the most didactic, perhaps similar to Roth's The Plot Against America in that the novel veers obviously into cultural commentary. This isn't a bad thing; it just makes for a certain type of novel, aware of its own stakes.

[Jonah Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book quite a bit. I don't remember what tempted me to pick it up, but I was not disappointed. I think I found it so engaging because I was busy trying to become a writer myself at the time, and I was having a lot of the same problems as the protagonist - over-striving for perfection, making things way more complicated than they have to be, getting distracted by the mundane and then failing at the mundane and the writing as well. I ended up really identifying with the guy, and I felt his pain throughout.

For some perhaps the inner conflict that develops between the desire to be literary and the pressure to be commercial (or at least just to finish something) is too finely drawn, but I don't think this is the case at all. These things are central to the characterization and fully warranted in the circumstances. I found myself rooting for the guy often. Dee includes excerpts from his character's book as part of the larger work. When you see how finely these are written and then hear the publisher - who has parted with a sizable advance, try to apply pressure to get something to justify the investment - you really want the writer to triumph.

Another thing I liked is the remarkable contrast between the writer character and the man who abducted him, setting the both of them up for fame and notoriety. But, even though they are completely different characters with diametrically opposed backgrounds and personalities, they are both propelled forward by events outside their control. They are pitted against one another throughout the book, but their destinies intertwined in ways they can't explain or escape. I recommend this book. It's smart, funny, engaging and interesting on many levels. I think you'll enjoy it.

[Bart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an average novel, putting it well behind the mark set by Dee's more recent work.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit like Bonfires of the Vanities, less expansive, less famous. Now a period piece, as the exotic technology of the time of the setting was cordless phones and VCRs.