Byron Lane (1)Critiques

I picked this book up for about 80% off the list price. It sounded like it could he entertaining. It’s not!
Writing a fiction book about your personal experiences as a personal assistant to a Hollywood dunce isn’t funny, it’s sad.
It’s written in first person so when nothing is going on the narrator lets loose with a stream of consciousness that happens constantly and is boring not interesting, and it is annoying.
His manly man father who has hugely negatively influenced the author is also an unneeded addition. The author is gay so there is a lot of unresolved issues at play.
I found this book to be a perfect example of the crap the publishing world constantly hypes.½

brewsbooksandagirl Book: Big Gay Wedding
Author: Byron Lane
Publisher: Henry Holt
Stars: 3/5

This book was just not for me. I think a lot was the way
the characters in Louisiana were portrayed. It could
also of been the narration which I did not care for as
this was an audio ARC I received from NetGalley. The
love story between Bennett and Ezra is wonderful. The
story of getting ready for the wedding day is great and
at times comedic. The wedding ceremony was over
the top. The book is sweet.

A big thank you to @NetGalley for the audio Arc.
Author @ByronLane #byronlane #henryholtbooks
#biggaywedding #books #mcmillanpublishing
#wedding #bookstack #bookstagrammer
#bookstagram #books #bookshelf #booksbooksbooks
#booksofinstagram #weddings #bookstagram
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At times, it was so heartfelt that it made me cry. Other times, it was so ridiculously over the top that I struggled to connect. I greatly appreciated gay protagonists for a change.½

Enjoyed it a lot and I know others will love it, too. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Merged review:

Enjoyed it a lot and I know others will love it, too. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

4.25

Barnett’s mother Chrissy runs the Polite Society Ranch. Her husband recently died and she assumed that Barnett would take over the family farm someday so she could retire. When Barnett comes home with his boyfriend and tells her that they are getting married, she knows that her dream of having her son run the farm is over. She also has to come to grips with the fact that Barnett is not going to just outgrow this gay thing like she hoped he would.

Big Gay Wedding has two main plot lines going. One is serious. Chrissy and the rest of the town are having a hard time with a Big Gay Wedding happening on the farm. The other is the planning of the actual wedding. Barnett’s fiancé comes from money and his sister-in-law is planning an extravagant and outlandish wedding. It was just a touch too zany for my taste. I did appreciate how Chrissy’s struggle with Barnett’s sexuality was written. Lane did a good job of portraying her inner turmoil when trying to accept Barnett’s marriage. I liked that there was nuance in her feelings even though I didn’t always agree with them.

Recommended.

Chrissy Durang, owner of the Polite Society Ranch near New Orleans, checked two things off a list in her notebook. 1.The school bus filled with noisy children arrived for their tour of the ranch, check. 2. Barnett should be arriving later, check. 34-year-old Barnett was the light of Chrissy’s world...he was her son...her only child...the near-exact image of his dear late father. She was excited about his homecoming. She was 99.9% sure that Barnett was flying from California to tell her he was ready to take over the ranch...take care of the animals...take care of her. Instead, not long after he arrived, Barnett dropped THE bombshell about “THE BIG THING”. The Big Thing that they never ever discussed...No, no...not that he was gay. She had known that since he was 10. the BIG THING was that he was. (gasp) ENGAGED...to be MARRIED...didn't matter that it was to another man... it was that he wanted to do it there in Mader, at the Polite Society Ranch. Chrissy could think of a million things she didn’t like about Barnett’s intended husband, Ezra; and they all went into her ever present... notebook. "Hair a mess", check..."Control freak",...check... "Mother's dream-killer", big check, make those two checks...However, in spite of all the "checks and rechecks that fact remained that Barnett loved Ezra. It had been a long time since Chrissy had seen her son this happy. She went and talked to her priest about the situation, but he more than disappointed her. It was obvious that her father-in-law, Barrett's "Paw-Paw", was supportive of Barnett and Ezra, which came as no surprise...Barnett was always Paw-Paw’s favorite. Chrissy didn’t have many friends in the small town, probably because of her notebook and her checks...but she was absolutely sure of three things: 1. nobody would approve of any sort of gay nuptials, 2. Ezra’s family was downright weird, and 3. last but not least...everybody in the whole town was going to blame her for what was about to happen. The story inside the story seems awfully familiar...homophobic parent (Mom)...gay son...soon to be unpopular wedding... I'm sure there's more. If you let any of this deter you then you will have missed one truly delightful story. There were so many unexpected things that occurred in this story, that you may find that you are actually disappointed, surprised, or flabbergasted when something conventional actually does occur.

Thank you to Goodreads for this book.

This is a 3.5 star rating and not a 4 for a few reasons. One of the downfalls for me were some church scenes. Not that they were in church at services but just there.

I was so excited to win (read) this this book ever since I saw the plot. Love is love no matter gay or straight.

Barnett's mom Chrissy who was not really against her son being gay but about his upcoming wedding. Ezra was his fiance and his family was crazzzzy. Hysterical conversations from his twin sister Nichole about how the wedding should be on Chrissy's farm. Victoria, their mother was so funny and when she invited herself to the farm for the engagement party, she was not happy with the farm and one of my favorite lines of Ezra's is that his mom never had cereal in her life.

Barnett's grandfather, who lived in a nursing home was one of the many characters, a character himself.

Parts of this book dragged but kept me reading nonetheless. I liked the second half of the book much better with the wedding and all.

DNF at page 184.

But the ARC has made a fabulous door prop since March, and I think about it quite frequently resultantly.

I chose this book because in the acknowledgments of Steven Rowley’s book The Guncle, he accepts Byron Lane’s marriage proposal because Lane proposed to him in the acknowledgments section of this book. How cute is that? Anyway, on to the review:

Charlie is depressed and living without purpose. He interviews for a job as Kathi Kannon’s assistant and somehow gets the job, even though he has no idea how to be an assistant. Kathi is an older actress most known for starring as Priestess Talara in a hugely popular science fiction movie. She hasn’t worked in a while and she struggles with addiction and mental illness. Charlie has always been a huge fan of hers and working as her assistant is his dream job. But once he gets the job, he soon figures out it’s going to be a lot harder than he thought it would be.

Okay, so Lane used to be Carrie Fisher’s assistant in real-life and reading this book felt like reading his memoir of being her assistant. I think he probably wrote it as a novel instead out of respect to her because it’s clear in the book that Charlie loves Kathi with all his heart even though the relationship seems one-sided. I don’t think Lane would want anyone to think badly of Carrie Fisher.

Kathi lives on the same compound as her mother, Miss Gracie, (as Carrie did with her mother Debbie Reynolds) and Miss Gracie has the financial means to make sure that Kathi never hits rock bottom. She loves her daughter and wants to protect her but she’s actually not doing her any favors by being an enabler. Charlie’s main job seems to be making sure that Kathi still functions while she keeps doing drugs, mainly prescription painkillers, and making sure she stays on the medication that keeps her bipolar in check. He does his best to keep her from taking drugs but when there’s no rock bottom, it’s a lost cause.

I mostly enjoyed A Star is Bored but I did find myself wondering why Charlie loved Kathi so much when she didn’t really seem to care about him all that much. Right off the bat, he gives her his dead mother’s locket and seems to look up to her as a mother figure when she isn’t nurturing at all. After reading this book, it would be interesting to go back and reread Carrie Fisher’s memoirs to see how they match up. I don’t know if I have time for that though!½

In A STAR IS BORED, by Byron Lane, we meet Charlie, a young man struggling to find his place in the world, who ends up working for Kathi Kannon, an eccentric Hollywood icon who is known to be unstable. As Charlie and Kathi's hijinks become funnier and more extreme, the question becomes: Is the balance between control and insanity bringing them tighter or forcing them apart or both?
I haven't laughed as much at a book in a long time. While Lane very clearly states that this is a work of fiction and not Carrie Fisher, who he was an assistant for, it is clear that his time with her inspired him and the reader can't help but picture Carrie Fisher while reading the book. Lane is a natural storyteller, his ability to craft a setup, a punchline, a twist and another punchline is masterful. Visiting his personal life, full of internal growth and fluctuating dating life, provides a grounding for the reader to remind us of the real world, so when Charlie reenters Kathi's world, we appreciate the comic absurdity of her life even more. The ending sneaks up on you while laughing through a particularly crazy exploit and provides a rewarding conclusion.
In a time when brevity and laughter is at a premium, A STAR IS BORED can take you to a place where life is joy and discovery and a hope for a happy life for us all.
I received a copy of this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway.

3,5 stars.
It was hard for me to get used to the writing style. It's different and I'm not sure if I like it. The protagonist Charlie talks a lot to iPhone's virtual assistant Siri, which I guess is a metaphor as he himself is personal assistant to Kathi Kannon, a star he has idolized since childhood. Some parts are really hilarious - like the restaurant scene in Japan - and some parts are boring - like many things in real life are.
Charlie lost his mother when he was young and his father is overbearing. He is looking for a connection, a family of sorts. He analyses everything at length. Those parts could have been shorter overall. But the story is great, sad and funny at the same time.
Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for a copy of this book.

"This is a work of fiction. Events, characters, and high crimes are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental, including names, places, weapons, and sexual acts. -My attorney"

I despise the idea of Celebrity but my brain still fixates on people. I first knew of Carrie Fisher at the end of 2015 and the way I remember 2016 is it being a whirlwind of Carrie and Star Wars.

The biggest thing Carrie opened my eyes to took a few years after everything else to fully process: ripping off your own life from your own self and stuffing it into your art. Its fine if you rob from reality and crudely incorporate it into fiction. It's like she gave me permission to do as I like, to take as I see fitting and put it into my own work without feeling like some kind of fraud for not making up everything anew.

Don't mean to harp quite so much about Carrie, but it's important in terms of how I interacted with this book. I've spent the past eight eight years obsessed with counteracting celebrity culture, with giving the recipient of parasocial affection their own agency, even if it's all in your head.

I went to a film festival screening of a documentary about Carrie, and then I read her diary entries in the form of a book and then watched movie adaptation (which became one of my all-time favorite movies) of a book she wrote that has many bits of her in it, and then I read another of her novels and I shut it halfway through and returned it to the library. And now this is seemingly the final, ultimate form of this blend between the celebrity and the page. Somebody else's perspective, inspired by their time with Carrie. It's not Carrie, it's a fictional character, but Carrie has her grasp all over it.

I find the subject matter, exploring the power imbalance that comes with this line of work, simply The Most intriguing thing to explore. I wanted Charlie and Kathi to be real friends, the Normal kind, but they could never be that, which is the joy and the tragedy of this story. They may love each other desperately, but there's a hierarchy set up, a bar of access between him and her. When he's not working, it's not possible to hang around her, no matter how dear he's become to her.

Humorous, absurd, but sad to imagine the texture of a life like this

Bryon Lane had a job as an assistant to actress Carrie Fisher, and in the write-what-you-know line, his novel A Star Is Bored tells the tale of Charlie, a young man who longs to leave his job on the overnight shift at a local television news station. He gets the opportunity to become the personal assistant to Kathi Kannon, daughter of a Golden Age of Hollywood star, and a star in her own right, having created the role of Priestess Talara in the worldwide phenonomon series of science fiction/action movies.

Kathi has a drug problem and suffers from bipolar disorder. She has wild mood swings, spending days in her bed alternating with expensive shopping sprees and trips to Vegas. She gives Charlie a highly inappropriate nickname (she needs her own Human Resources Department), and he is charge of waking her each day with her medications and Diet Coke.

Charlie organizes Kathi's life (the label maker gets quite a workout), and spends a lot of time keeping her out of trouble and on track writing the book she has already spent the advance money on. As difficult as she is, she is also raucously funny, and there is never a dull moment with Kathi. They form a friendship, but as anyone who has dealt with a drug addict knows, that bond gets tested. Charlie discovers that his life is not his own, but belongs to Kathi, day and night.

A Star is Bored is hilarious, and also moving. Kathi and Charlie have a sweet relationship until they don't. Kathi's mom (the Debbie Reynolds doppleganger) fiercely loves her daughter, but all her efforts to help and protect her don't work.

If you have read Carrie Fisher's memoir Wishful Drinking or saw the HBO version of the stage show based on that, you will get an extra level of enjoyment from this endearing novel. I recommend it.

A Star is Bored is the story of a celebrity personal assistant written by a former celebrity personal assistant. As a pop culture junkie, I couldn't wait to read this book!

There are a lot of parallels you can draw between the novel & real life. Charlie, the book’s protagonist, gets a job working for film star Kathi Kannon. She’s Hollywood royalty (her mother is a beloved star as well) and best known for playing an iconic sci-fi character who also writes books and is a recovering drug addict. Byron Lane, the author, worked for Carrie Fisher, a film star who was Hollywood royalty, best known for playing an iconic sci-fi character who also wrote books and was a recovering drug addict. It’s hard not to read this book and wonder what actually happened versus what’s pure fiction and while that’s what makes it entertaining, more often than not, it made me sad too.

I think my biggest issue is Charlie. He’s such a sad sack throughout and it’s difficult to root for him. There’s a subplot about his disapproving father that gives him a little more depth but it’s hard to get past his constant whining and anxiety. Also, some of Lane’s writing choices - like using a “Hey Siri” refrain - took me out of the story.

Kathi, on the other hand, is vividly painted. She comes across as brilliant and complicated, someone who sees the world through a unique lens the rest of us can only hope to get the chance to glimpse. But she’s also depicted as someone who squanders her talent and privilege and who basically obliterates anything good in her life. Sometimes it seems these episodes and tantrums are meant to be humorous but I had a hard time reading them that way knowing how Carrie Fisher’s life ended. Even if Kathi’s story is completely fictional, it’s almost impossible not to project elements of it onto the star we all know when there are so many similarities between Lane’s real boss and the one he put in his book.

Thank you to Netgalley, Henry Holt Books and the author for an ebook to review. All opinions are my own.