Famous Writers School: A Novel

by Steven Carter

Overview

A genre-bending romp that is at once reminiscent of Raymond Carver and Carl Hiaasen.

Steven Carter, who has been called "madly inventive" (Kirkus Reviews) and "darkly comic" (Village Voice), has a genius for letting his characters speak for themselves, and here they do so quite literally. Famous Writers School is composed of three aspiring authors' letters and stories sent to a correspondence course by that grandiose name, and the self-serving "lessons" that Wendell Newton, their endearingly obtuse instructor, doles out in response.

Wendell's oddball collection of students includes Rio, an alluring blues singer on whom he quickly develops a crush; Linda Trane, an unhinged housewife who may be stalking him; and Dan, a truly talented author of hard-boiled detective fiction. As Dan's gritty mystery arrives piece by piece, Wendell gets hooked on the story—and decides to dress it up in his own style in order to pass it off as his creation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582433844
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	09/01/2006
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steven Carter's short stories have appeared in Antioch Review, Tin House, Northwest Review, and Mississippi Review, among others. His first novel, I Was Howard Hughes, was published in 2003. His second novel, Famous Writers School, based on the actual scam school for writers, was published in 2006.

Editorial Reviews

Correspondence classes might not make you a great author, but they can sure tell you a lot about your teacher's neuroses. Wendell Newton, the name of his school notwithstanding, is not a famous writer: He wrote press releases in the Air Force, worked at an agricultural trade magazine and has one self-published novel under his belt. But he's intelligent (and pompous) enough to take that r‚sum‚ and coronate himself a writing expert, and he gets a steady stream of business through writers' magazines. Carter (I Was Howard Hughes, 2003, etc.) concentrates on the relationships of three pupils: Rio, a torch singer and former grad student with whom Wendell tries to fire up a flirtation; Dan, who's written a rambling but engaging Jim Thompson-esque trouble-out-in-the-sticks novel; and Linda, who has no real talent to speak of but (as it slowly becomes clear) has it in for Wendell, her ex. Making intentionally mediocre-to-bad writing into an engaging novel is a tough trick, but Carter pulls off its early portions by rendering Wendell a sublimely entertaining fool: He condescends to Dan by telling him his story ought to be sleazed up and submitted to porn magazines, and he enthusiastically embraces Rio's early efforts by suggesting she publish in Upward Spiral-the literary magazine Wendell publishes. As for Linda, Wendell's increasingly terrified by her letters about snooping inside his house and reading his diaries (which detail his infatuation with Rio and his plans to hijack Dan's novel for his own purposes). Wendell eventually emerges as a layered, even sympathetic, character, but an epistolary novel requiring four characters is a complicated scheme for a story that has a fairly simple lessonabout literary pretentiousness. And ultimately, it's hobbled by Dan's novel-in-progress, which takes up nearly half the book. A smartly conceived send-up of writerly ambition, imperfectly executed. Agent: Betsy Amster/Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises

Kirkus Reviews