Tung's review
Sellevision: A Novel
by Augusten Burroughs
Tung's review
Sellevision: A Novel by Augusten Burroughs
Tung's review
rating:
Three years ago I read Running with Scissors and found it funny, but largely mediocre. Two years ago, I read Dry and found it tolerable. Well, no more books by Augusten Burroughs because Sellevision is awful. The novel focuses on several characters, all of whom are hosts on a fictional home shopping cable television channel. One is fired for accidentally exposing himself on a live broadcast; another is a prim and proper lady who is being stalked by an obsessive fan, and who is completely unaware that her home life is a disaster; another host is sleeping with the network boss. I’d go on, but all of the characters in this book, every one of them, is a cliché and a stereotype done better in other works of satire. The plot is completely predictable, the attempts at humor fall flat, and on page 200, the book suddenly wraps itself up and the last chapter of the book is titled “One Year Later” – as if Burroughs found his writing so inane he couldn’t bear the thought of continui...more
