|
|
Safe Internet Shopping - Sellevision
Shop for Sellevision with confidence at Safe-Internet-Shopping.
Below you will find information about Sellevision. We have included price information, editorial reviews, consumer reviews and related products links.
At safe Internet Shopping we believe you should have all the information available for Sellevision so you can make an informed buying decision.
Thank you for shopping with us.
|
List Price: $17.95
Our Price: $9.00
Your Save: $ 8.95 ( 50% )
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Kindle Edition
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
Format: Kindle Book
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2003-06-01
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: 2003-06-01
Studio: Picador
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: This has to be a work of non fiction...
Comment: Having worked at a 'Sellevision'-esq place, although I won't get into specifics, I was rolling on the floor- laughing while reading this. It was so much like the real thing, it amazed me. I'm a HUGE Burroughs fan and wasn't too sure if a novel would be a good read by him, but I was wrong. Being able to relate to the subject made this book a million times more enjoyable, and I can see how many readers weren't big fans. Being able to connect made it easier to visualize the situations and characters. If you work for/worked for QVC, HSN or any of the other 20 or so shopping channels, you MUST read this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Great Showing From Burroughs
Comment: Sellevision was recommended to me by a friend, who suggested the book because I love the writing of Max Barry (of Company and Syrup fame). It turned out to be a great match.
Sellevision is a hilarious book -- simultaneously dark humored and lighthearted. It follows the lives of four hosts on the Sellevision network, a home shopping network. It might sound a little boring, but in the course of a year there is incest, genitals on live television, a nervous breakdown, a dead rat, and copious amounts of alcohol.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good first try
Comment: I didn't know that Augusten Burroughs had written a novel, so when he mentioned in his memoir Possible Side Effects that his first novel Sellevision is about a host of a home shopping channel whose penis slipped out while on the air, I knew that I'd be reading it.
Burroughs is the author of four best selling memoirs, the most famous being Running With Scissors, which has also been made into a movie. According to Burroughs's official website, Sellevision is in production to be made into a movie as well, and is scheduled to begin shooting in November of 2008. In his memoirs Burroughs has running themes, the main ones being: his weird family upbringing, his battle with alcoholism, and his relationship status as a gay man.
Sellevision is an account of the gradual destruction of a home shopping channel. The book has an ensemble of characters which is the books strongest and weakest points. The book starts with the aforementioned flashing, which leads to the mainest of main characters, Max, finding out that such a gaffe makes finding further employment almost impossible. Peggy Jean, a fundamentalist Christian who sells such trinkets as crucifix cufflinks and star of David money clips, starts drinking and pill popping when a stalker will not stop sending her e-mails that point out her unwanted body hair and other bodily flaws. Bebe is a forty-two year old shopping addict and star of Sellevision. These are the main characters of the book. Unfortunately, nobody told Burroughs.
For so small a book (229 pages with big font) there are too many characters. It was only towards about page 180 that I figured out that Trish and Leigh were two different people. I had somehow combined them into one super character in my head until that point. I'm sure that this specific problem didn't occur for many, but it is just an example of how confusing it can be to introduce six main characters within a span of 50 pages. The big characters were Max, Peggy Jean, and Bebe. He should've either stuck with them or made this a 350 page book.
Another drawback of the book is that it took too long for the action to start. There were too many references to the Selevision inventory and inner workings. I understand that he was trying to be detailed and draw us into the "world of home shopping", but instead it just made the pace drag. Once he cut the rate of the references down about a quarter of the way through the book, it was a lot more enjoyable. If Burroughs had written this way throughout the whole book, it would have flowed much better. The meat of the story was the characters and once he focused more on them, it got really good.
I don't want to be overly critical of the book, because it was a really enjoyable read. Burroughs was funny as ever, but it just seemed pretty obvious that this was his first try at a novel because of the structural flaws. I hope he gives fiction another try.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Comment: This is the first book I've read by Augusten Burroughs and honestly, I can't believe I read it through the end. The plot is formulaic and implausible and the characters are one-dimensional. Now, I understand that this book is "comedy" and because of that, doesn't have the same conventions of a regular novel. But unfortunately, the humor smacks of lazy writing and lack of imagination. In short, it's just plain bad, bad, bad.
The only people I imagine finding this funny are people who think Jay Leno's monologues are a hoot. If you appreciate good comedy, pass by this one and thank me later.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Would have made a better script
Comment: I like this author, and the book has a great premise. Unfortunately, I don't think the author cared enough about them to ever bring them to life. The situations in this book are quite hilarious -- and they would work really well as a popcorn movie. It's just not a book.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Darkly funny and gleefully mean-spirited, Sellevision explores greed, obsession and third tier celebrity, in the world of a fictional home shopping network. Welcome to the troubled world of Sellevision, America-s premier retail broadcasting network. When Max Andrews, the much-loved and handsome (lonely and gay) host of -Slumber Sunday Sundown- accidentally exposes himself in front of twenty million kids and their parents during a -Toys for Tots- segment, Sellevision faces its first big scandal. As Max fails to find a job in television, another host, the popular and perky Peggy Jean Smythe is receiving sinister emails about her appearance from a stalker. Popping pills and drinking heavily, she fails to notice that her husband is spending a lot of time with the very young babysitter who lives next door. Then there-s Leigh, whose affair with Sellevision boss Howard Toast is going nowhere, until she exposes him on air; and Bebe, Sellevision-s star host, who finds Mr. Right through the Internet--if she can just stop her shopping addiction from taking over. Darkly funny and gleefully mean-spirited, Sellevision explores greed, obsession and third tier celebrity, in the world of a fictional home shopping network. Welcome to the troubled world of Sellevision, America-s premier retail broadcasting network. When Max Andrews, the much-loved and handsome (lonely and gay) host of -Slumber Sunday Sundown- accidentally exposes himself in front of twenty million kids and their parents during a -Toys for Tots- segment, Sellevision faces its first big scandal. As Max fails to find a job in television, another host, the popular and perky Peggy Jean Smythe is receiving sinister emails about her appearance from a stalker. Popping pills and drinking heavily, she fails to notice that her husband is spending a lot of time with the very young babysitter who lives next door. Then there-s Leigh, whose affair with Sellevision boss Howard Toast is going nowhere, until she exposes him on air; and Bebe, Sellevision-s star host, who finds Mr. Right through the Internet--if she can just stop her shopping addiction from taking over.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
