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Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate
In the summer of 2003, mere weeks before his fortieth birthday, Lunt Moreland checks in at Hollywood’s infamous Hotel Ofotert for the upcoming “Sharonfest,” a gathering of his fellow “Sharonophiles”―obsessive, lifelong devotees of the 1960s movie starlet and Charles Manson murder victim, Sharon Tate.
Soon after arriving at the Hotel Ofotert, Lunt begins to receive ominous packages and menacing phone calls. Is his rival Glenn Mandrake, who is intent on blocking the publication of a Tate-centered book Lunt is trying to publish, responsible for these? Could it be his longtime confidante, the physically handicapped Sharonophile named Branson? Or perhaps the ill-intentioned sender is the quirky and beautiful green-haired young hipster whom Lunt has fallen for―and who also happens to be a lifelong member of Charles Mansons’s still-existing cult, The Family―to blame? All that’s certain is that Lunt’s growing dependence on an Mucaquell, a powerful opiate-based cough syrup is not helping him get to the bottom things. Especially once he runs out...
Comic, wistful, and perverse, Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate tackles the nature of reality and the dehumanizing elements of fame and celebrity.
Soon after arriving at the Hotel Ofotert, Lunt begins to receive ominous packages and menacing phone calls. Is his rival Glenn Mandrake, who is intent on blocking the publication of a Tate-centered book Lunt is trying to publish, responsible for these? Could it be his longtime confidante, the physically handicapped Sharonophile named Branson? Or perhaps the ill-intentioned sender is the quirky and beautiful green-haired young hipster whom Lunt has fallen for―and who also happens to be a lifelong member of Charles Mansons’s still-existing cult, The Family―to blame? All that’s certain is that Lunt’s growing dependence on an Mucaquell, a powerful opiate-based cough syrup is not helping him get to the bottom things. Especially once he runs out...
Comic, wistful, and perverse, Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate tackles the nature of reality and the dehumanizing elements of fame and celebrity.
347 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 27, 2019
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113 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 19, 2019
Lippman pulls you into this world of present and past then climbs inside your head and doesn't leave. This novel really has everything - intriguing characters, brilliant language and prose, captivating setting, expertly-woven narratives, subtle literary allusions and references, and laugh-out-loud comedy. Buy two and give one away. The recipient of the other will love and trust you forever.
October 21, 2019
An incisive, funny and surprisingly poignant descent into America’s ongoing Sharon Tate obsession.
And one, no less, penned by a FIRST-time novelist whose craftsmanship is as terrific as his character study of fixated personalities in a culture that cannot go cold turkey in its infatuation with "celebrity" murders. Gary Lippman, an Innocence Project lawyer and playwright, has created an intoxicating Hollywood tableau of misfits, BDSM weirdos, Manson Family groupies, ably layering them around his anti-hero, poor Lunt Moreland, who is in the grips of a mid-life crisis after not much of a life. Rather than buying a Corvette or undergoing plastic surgery, he instead attends an L.A. festival dedicated to the gorgeous Sharon Tate, who, like JFK, became more famous than her accomplishments because of her spectacularly horrid death. Lippman's work has drawn parallels to David Sedaris, James Ellroy, and Terry Southern for his psycho-sociological dark humor. No offense to those legends, but what Lippman has done, with the well-dappled intrigue, gas-lighting, green-haired sex maniac, and mental terror makes this book shine incandescently. Consider this trenchant passage: "The room phone had to ring for fifteen minutes, stopping and starting many times, before it could through Lund's mental sludge, the buzzing in his ears, the drone of the TV, and the cavalcade of noises in his head." Upping the voltage further was Lippman's astute inclusion of the blonde goddess' voice herself, as if she is setting the record straight from the afterlife to a man who, absent his own strong identity, has been worshipping her since he discovered the strange overlap between their lives as a kid. Cannot recommend this book enough. In the climax, Lund gets what he deserves, Sharon remains alive in our collective imaginations, while Manson junkies are defrocked for what they are: twisted nobodies dazzled by a long-haired psychopath who helped obliterate the innocence of the sixties. Bravo, Mr. Lippman! Quentin Tarrantino: take note.
And one, no less, penned by a FIRST-time novelist whose craftsmanship is as terrific as his character study of fixated personalities in a culture that cannot go cold turkey in its infatuation with "celebrity" murders. Gary Lippman, an Innocence Project lawyer and playwright, has created an intoxicating Hollywood tableau of misfits, BDSM weirdos, Manson Family groupies, ably layering them around his anti-hero, poor Lunt Moreland, who is in the grips of a mid-life crisis after not much of a life. Rather than buying a Corvette or undergoing plastic surgery, he instead attends an L.A. festival dedicated to the gorgeous Sharon Tate, who, like JFK, became more famous than her accomplishments because of her spectacularly horrid death. Lippman's work has drawn parallels to David Sedaris, James Ellroy, and Terry Southern for his psycho-sociological dark humor. No offense to those legends, but what Lippman has done, with the well-dappled intrigue, gas-lighting, green-haired sex maniac, and mental terror makes this book shine incandescently. Consider this trenchant passage: "The room phone had to ring for fifteen minutes, stopping and starting many times, before it could through Lund's mental sludge, the buzzing in his ears, the drone of the TV, and the cavalcade of noises in his head." Upping the voltage further was Lippman's astute inclusion of the blonde goddess' voice herself, as if she is setting the record straight from the afterlife to a man who, absent his own strong identity, has been worshipping her since he discovered the strange overlap between their lives as a kid. Cannot recommend this book enough. In the climax, Lund gets what he deserves, Sharon remains alive in our collective imaginations, while Manson junkies are defrocked for what they are: twisted nobodies dazzled by a long-haired psychopath who helped obliterate the innocence of the sixties. Bravo, Mr. Lippman! Quentin Tarrantino: take note.
September 19, 2019
Lippman pulls you into this world of present and past then climbs inside your head and doesn't leave. This novel really has everything - intriguing characters, brilliant language and prose, captivating setting, expertly-woven narratives, subtle literary allusions and references, and laugh-out-loud comedy. Buy two and give one away. The recipient of the other will love and trust you for ever.
March 7, 2023
A fun read, and bizarre as the terrible events that have, so sadly, defined Sharon Tate's legacy... I'm admittedly infatuated with her in a very wistful way, and consequently, I despised this story's protagonist. In that sense, it's kinda smarter than it seems on the surface.
April 8, 2020
Not worst book I ever read.... not best. Way too long for the story it tells.
December 27, 2020
3.5 stars
August 27, 2025
400+ pages of utter torture porn drivel. It deserves a star for the title which drew me in but I wouldn’t encourage anyone to read it. Worst book I read by a healthy margin.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews