Tell-All

June 28, 2010
Palahniuk channels old Hollywood in this homage to Billy Wilder's classic film Sunset Boulevard. Mazie Coogan tends to the needs of Katherine Kenton, a washed-up film star who still believes she lives in the spotlight. When a stranger enters their lives and seduces Miss Kathie, Mazie unravels his secret plot to write a memoir about his dalliance with the star that culminates in Miss Kathie's death. Hilary Huber's pitch and pronunciation are inspired by the great actresses of the 1930s and '40s. Her arch voice recalls the smoky tones of cigarette tapping screen stars, and her raspy narration is chilling. A Doubleday hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 22).

March 22, 2010
Palahniuk's rude sendup of name-dropping and the culture of celebrity worship revolves around the fate of Katherine Kenton, a much-married star of stage, screen, and television, living in obscurity and searching for a comeback vehicle. Her story is told by Mazie Coogan—her Thelma Ritterish, straight-shooting confidant and protector—whose warning system sounds when Miss Kathie meets Webster Carlton Westward III, who quickly seduces his way into her Manhattan townhouse. It's soon revealed he's working on a memoir about his affair with Miss Kathie, the last chapter of which ends with her anticipated death, the details of which keep changing. The affair coincides with Miss Kathie's comeback in a bombastic Broadway extravaganza penned by Lillian Hellman (who receives inexplicably savage treatment). Throughout, Palahniuk drops names from the famous to the head-scratchingly obscure, peppers the narrative with neologisms supposedly coined by famous gossip columnists (ex-husbands are “was-bands”), and annoyingly styles the text so that nearly every name, brand name, and fabulous venue appears in bold. Unfortunately, this gossipy fantasia is a one-joke premise that, even at its modest length, wears out its welcome well before Miss Kathie's final fade-out.

February 15, 2010
Beneath the glamour of Hollywood lies an ineffable sadness, a commonplace notion that this occasionally amusing novel both belabors and mocks.

As the cult master of high-concept fictional subversion, the prolific Palahniuk (Pygmy, 2009, etc.) has his typical fun here, though the thinness of character and lack of narrative momentum that are part of the plan might try the reader's patience. Within"this silly motion picture we call human history," the tarnished heroine is aging Katherine"Miss Kathie" Kenton, whose riveting violet eyes and multiple marriages might tempt some to recall Elizabeth Taylor. The narrator is Hazie Coogan, who tells the story in terms of acts and scenes, with flashbacks and voice-overs. And who is Hazie? Not exactly a housekeeper or personal assistant to Miss Kathie. Perhaps a confidante or nursemaid. Certainly the second banana."I was Thelma Ritter before Thelma Ritter was Thelma Ritter," she writes, or rather Palahniuk writes, only in the novel each reference to Thelma Ritter is in boldface. As is every other proper name, most of them recognizable ("Lilly" Hellman, Coco Chanel, Ronald Reagan), and product name. Both the novel's title and the boldface recall the golden age of the gossip columnist, with the author having great sport with the wordplay that once filled the columns of Walter Winchell, Hedda Hopper and the like. Every ex-husband, of whom Miss Kathie has many, is a"was-band," while a book about such a star might be a"bile-ography." As a younger Lothario vies to become the next Mr. Kathie, he is writing a memoir that will be far more marketable after her death. Or is he? Among the meta-fictional challenges the reader must confront within this narrative within a narrative within a narrative is what kind of book is Hazie writing (and we are reading). Meanwhile, the wordplay amuses.

Those who aren't sure what they're in for with Palahniuk won't want to start here.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2010
The latest by Palahniuk ("Pygmy") reaches back to Hollywood's Golden Age with Hazie Coogan, a do-it-all assistant who narrates how she created, maintained, and defended the stardom of Katherine Kenton, a veteran actress known for chipper portrayals of historical wives. Thanks to Hazie, the relentlessly dumb Miss Kathie has survived multiple marriages, merciless beauty rituals, and more than her share of career peaks and valleys. Now Hazie faces her gravest challenge yetWebster Carlton Westward III, a youthful suitor whose romantic overtures may be darkly motivated. Everything here is exaggerated: thunderous name dropping, ridiculous scripts in which playwright Lillian Hellman makes herself into a tall-tale historical hellcat, torrid sexual encounters, and the crassness of the gossip mill. VERDICT Palahniuk still has considerable linguistic firepower and satirical humor, but here he puts it in service of a repetitive, predictable story, never fulfilling the promise of a great premise. Constant, bold-faced references to Tinseltown obscurities become annoying long before the end of a short book. Palahniuk is coasting, and this title may annoy even dedicated fans. [Ebook ISBN 978-0-385-53317-1.]Neil Hollands, Williamsburg Regional Lib., VA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2010
At his best, Palahniuk punctures our collective psyches with sharp darts of satire, subversion, and surprise. Fight Club (1996) created a mythology from the inner lives of alienated Gen X-ers, and Pygmy (2009) daringly tweaked fears of terrorism and school shootings, heedless of our jangled nerves. In an era of panic about pandemics, Rant (2007) likened celebrity to a plague. Tell-All retreats to the world of golden-age Hollywood, telling the tale of Katherine Kenton, aging star of stage and screen, and Hazie Coogan, Kentons maid, companion, confidanteand unlikely star-maker. Written in a style meant to evoke the boldface breathlessness of celebrity scandal sheets, Tell-All chronicles Kentons love affair with the inappropriately young Webster Carlton Westward III, a possible gold-digger, and Coogans increasingly desperate attempts to manage her mistress life. To be sure, Palahniuk stages some stunning scenes and pens some bawdily hilarious lines. But, unfortunately, other than noting stardoms fleeting fame, he doesnt find much new to say. Readers with long memories will be struck by the way some of the set pieces resemble the scathing satire of a young William S. Burroughs. But Naked Lunch was published in 1959its a little late to be dining out on similar fare. Then again, if Lillian Hellman strikes you as a worthy target, then this might be just the meal youre looking for.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)