Arts & Entertainments

Arts & Entertainments

2014 • 288 pages

Short Review: A failed actor (now drama teacher) deeply in debt and married to a wife that is desperate for children does not know how to find the money for yet another round of IVF treatments. When a friend of a friend, who runs celebrity blogs suggests he find items from when he was dating a now famous actress (specifically suggesting a sex tape) he decides to do it. The money is enough to pay of their debts, get the IVF treatments and have some left over to pay for the potential children.

But he has not really thought through the ramifications. While he is not visible in the tape, they were in an exclusive six year relationship and soon he has been fired from his Catholic high school job, kicked out of his house by his wife and lost.

What up until this point has hinted at a fictional exploration of the meaning of celebrity becomes a full blown exploration as his wife gets her own reality tv show and he has to start acting to try to get the attention of the world, so that he can get the attention of his wife and win her back.

I enjoyed the book and appreciated the satire. I didn't think it was as good as it had been hyped to me, but well worth reading.


My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/arts-and-entertainments-a-novel-by-christopher-beha/

October 20, 2015