Rating  - Entertaining
Enjoyable and easy to read, though I didn't find it hilarious like some of the other reviews. Found some of the characters to be quite true to life, and reflected some of the horror of TV hosts that we are subjected to on these shopping networks!
Rating  - Reads like a college-level novel try
First, let me say that Augusten Burroughs is one of my favorite authors overall. But this book just did not work. I kept waiting for it to get better, and wanted to throw it across the room when I finally finished it. I wanted my money back. More than that, I wanted my life back -- the time I'd wasted reading this. The characters are despicable and unlikeable. I checked into the order of his work, and found that he'd actually written this BEFORE "Running With Scissors." In my opinion, each book he's written has gotten consistently stronger. Running With Scissors was good, but a bit uneven in pacing and dragged at times. "Dry" was perfection. "Magical Thinking" was outstanding as well. I feel like Burroughs' talents have evolved as a writer, and Sellevision was a sophomoric effort. I think they are riding on his other successes to get this published and sold now. Or at least that's what I thought until I saw so many positive reviews for the book. Still, do know that his other books are ALL memoirs and this is fiction, and it just doesn't have the same voice at all. The whole thing felt very forced to me.
Rating  - Crude and Wickedly Funny
This, Augusten Burroughs's first book, is sort of a combination soap opera and farce. It's fast moving, irreverent in the extreme, and very funny. It's also a bit crude at times, which I mention simply as a point of information, not as a criticism.
When I mention farce, I automatically think of P.G. Wodehouse, against whose works all farce must, I think, be measured. Sellevision measures up reasonably well. Burroughs doesn't have Wodehouse's gift for language, but, then who does? Four stars instead of five because the plot seems a bit too contrived and arbitrary for my taste, but definitely worth a read.
Rating - Not the typical Burroughs' book
If you buy this book expecting it to be another Burroughs' book, it's not. It is a work of fiction and somehow lacks the comfortable writing style of Burroughs. It is good. It is entertaining. It is filled with humor, but NOT laugh-out-loud humor. The humor is subtle and delivered through the highly flawed characters. A worthwhile read.
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Customer Reviews for Picador,0312422288,9780312422288,0312422288,813.6 |
