... wildly funny and irreverent ... Nearly every sentence Kathi utters is darkly comic ... if penis jokes don’t make you crack a tiny smile, then it’s likely this novel isn’t for you ... Lane’s sentences are sometimes overdone ... He’s at his best when he allows his quirky characters to take over, especially when he describes Kathi and Charlie’s extensive travels ... Charlie’s foggy friendship with Kathi defies convention, and Lane’s writing lifts the novel far above its gossamer Hollywood setting, suffusing his portrait of Kathi with a complex sensitivity ... At the end of the novel, I felt a deep sense of grief for Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016. This story made me long for a universe in which Charlie and Kathi could be action figures themselves: icons whose sensitivity is a superpower that can save us.
... even though the novel itself is a work of fiction, it was impossible for me not to picture Carrie Fisher as the ‘bored star’, which gave my reading experience even more dimensions than ‘just fiction’, as I am sure it will for you, too .. I was immediately sucked into Charlie’s life and felt with and for him ... Lane’s writing is lighthearted and charming, despite the multiple serious topics this book depicts. He writes with humour without taking importance away from serious matters, which made this an amazing reading experience. His writing let me feel sadness and desperation and the brokenness within characters, just as much as the awkward and funny moments at which I would laugh out loud while reading ... is as much heartbreaking as it is hopeful and just as tragic as it is funny. This is a book for everyone. Everyone who ever felt lost, who ever felt too scared to make a change, or to take a chance. Everyone who has ever loved, ever lost, and who needs a reminder that underneath it all, we are all the same.
... a fizzy new novel that upends celebrity culture with an insider’s look at the care and feeding of big stars ... Lane nimbly sketches the ridiculous 'Holly-weird' life of the uber-pampered ... Some of the novel’s sharpest scenes come when Charlie meets for drinks with an unofficial club for personal assistants, where smart ambitious young people trade stories of humiliation and pass along tips for how to procure whatever their crazy bosses might require at a moment’s notice ... At times, however, it’s hard to understand Charlie’s devotion to a person so utterly self-absorbed. And there are stretches of this novel where its revved-up tone—lots of ALL CAPS and exclamation points—can grow tiresome. However, there is real sweetness in Charlie’s quest to connect, and readers will root for him to find happiness ... anything but boring, and could be the fun summer read so many of us are craving.
The bad news is that it is indeed a novel, not exactly the tell-all I’ve been waiting for, but the good news is that despite Lane’s ingenious and very droll fictionalizations, it’s a tell-a-lot ... Lane turns out to be such a good writer, so funny and rapier sharp, that whether there is or isn’t doesn’t really matter. He’s made a fascinating character out of his perennially bored star, a pill-popping, foul-mouthed creature at once cynical and sentimental, self-loving and self-hating, with a lust for life and a self-destructive streak as wide as Santa Monica Boulevard ... The book is not without its longueurs. There isn’t much plot (no murders, explosions, car chases), and every so often, I was inclined to leave Charlie and not-Fisher to their own devices, but the narrative invariably picks up, and Charlie’s deepening relationship with not-Fisher anchors the story, creating a bond that humanizes them both ... With suicides and worse lurking behind every door, it’s a conventional happy ending to a story that could easily have turned ferociously ugly. It has straight-to-series written all over it (Netflix, take heed), but Lane earns his happily ever after. He gives us the best of both worlds, savage satire leavened with compassion. He exploits his relationship with his late employer but clearly cares deeply for her, and by the end, so do we. This reader was rarely bored.
There are few juicy revelations, since Fisher was so open about her struggle with sobriety, but that doesn’t take away from the effect of the novel. Charlie and Kathi are a dysfunctional match, and under Kathi’s frenetic tutelage and manic adventurousness, Charlie manages to become his own man. A funny, tender-hearted, and humane Hollywood story.
A peek inside the wacky life of beloved Hollywood royalty, this debut novel should have wide appeal. Read-alikes include Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada and Joyce Carol Oates’s Blonde.
Lane knows the weird, wild world of celebrity-assisting firsthand, and it shows ... riotously funny at times. One memorable scene sees Kathi purchasing an expensive fur coat and then, much to the horror of a judgmental salesclerk, cutting it up to make a jacket for her dog. But there’s also a deep undercurrent of sadness.
... fizzy ... Lane brings wit and tenderness to Kathi’s mostly acerbic personality, and her attachment to Charlie is potent and palpable ... If any of this were true (a note from Lane’s attorney says otherwise), Lane’s affecting tale would show how the real Charlie found his own superpower—as a novelist.
Deciphering Kathi is a 24-hour task and their dynamic will be as amusing for the reader as it is all-consuming for Charlie .... Kathi and Charlie’s story is one of addiction—mostly to other people and what they can add to your life. Their story is also deeply human, relatable in the most unrelatable way. Bravo to Lane, who deftly navigates the complexity of inner and outer lives as well as the many facets of normal. Add this to the Assistant Bible: A famous person’s boredom is another person’s saving grace ... Larger-than-life characters drive this charming, hilarious, and memorable debut.
