Famous After Death — Benjamin Cheever

A brilliant and wickedly comic novel about fame and its discontents, now available in paperback with a provocative essay by the author.

Noel Hammersmith has two dreams: to bring his weight down to a slim 138 pounds and to be famous. Despite being a diet book editor and exercising regularly, he can't lose a pound, and his hilarious timidity insures that he has a hard time getting attention at all, let alone fame.

To express his growing frustration, Noel begins to write angry letters-to Brooks Brothers when they discontinue his favorite shirt, and to Golden Rule Vitamins, who makes fake promises of easy weight loss. Coincidentally, bombs start exploding after each of his letters, the most notorious leaving a seven-year-old chess prodigy dead. When one of Noel's authors, "Che Guevera," claims to know where the mysterious bomber will strike next, Noel's world gets turned upside down...until a series of riotous and unexpected twists helps Noel attain his dreams, but at a strange price.

Expertly skewering the cult of celebrity, this darkly comic satire is even more true-to-life than we might like.