cover image Misadventures in the (213)

Misadventures in the (213)

Dennis Hensley. William Morrow & Company, $24 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-688-15452-3

In this comic novel of Hollywood's outer circle, essentially a book-length version of Hensley's (lightly fictionalized?) gossip column for Detour magazine, the in-joke is more than a gesture--it's a lifestyle. Celebrity-crazed Craig Clyborne has an edge over the other L.A. schemers and dreamers he hangs around with. His best friend is Dandy Rio, the sexually voracious, hilariously Machiavellian star of a new sitcom. The book's plot, which involves Craig's moving to Hollywood to peddle his script, is just a device from which to hang various sketches, mostly about Dandy scheming, alternately, to bed various stars (for example, Bill Maher, the host of Politically Incorrect) and to redeem her career, which, midway through the book, begins to bomb. Dandy is by far Hensley's most enjoyable creation: Craig's always-a-bridesmaid litany of disastrous dates (with a waiter, with the son of a game show host, with the star of a rock 'n' roll band) soon grows tiring. The novel's considerable gag sense and rapid-fire one-liners will be best appreciated by fanatics of TV trivia; others, especially those outside (213), may start to feel like intruders on an infernal party line. (July)