Booklist called Susan Compo "smart, sassy, and tough," while Publishers
Weekly praised her "witty, unflinching prose." Following two highly
regarded story collections, Susan Compo's first novel takes a sharp-eyed
look at LA's culture industry. Giselle Entwistle has her hands full with
her roster of demanding show-business clients. There's Adon, struggling
to make the transition from teen idol to mature star with the aid of a
goatee. There's would-be rock impresario Hedda Hophead, "aggressive as
junk mail and just as relentless." There's country singer Len Tingle,
whose career has as many ups and downs as his love affair with Giselle;
and Tupperware demonstrator extraordinaire Troy Harder, "a living legend
in food storage," who Giselle fears might want to plastic-wrap her. Not
to mention child prodigy belter Frances Culligan, who seems to have
disappeared. And then there's Pandra, whose haunting memoir of growing
up in suburban Orange County and coming of age in '70s glitter-era Los
Angeles (platform boots, Rodney's English Disco, The Real Don Steele
Show, David Bowie clones) forms a book within this book. Giselle hopes
to get Pandra's story published, but it does bring up this little matter
of a possible murder in Pandra's past . . .
