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June Bloom is twenty-nine, broke, and an aspiring comedy writer. Hugo Best is a beloved late-night TV icon and notorious womanizer who invites her to his mansion for Memorial Day weekend. This is the story of their four days together, a "zippy...magnificent...devilishly fun ride" (Vogue).
When June Bloom, an assistant on the late-night comedy show, Stay Up with Hugo Best, runs into Hugo himself at an open mic following his unexpected retirement, she finds herself fielding a surprising invitation: Hugo asks June to come to his mansion in Greenwich for the long Memorial Day weekend. "No funny business," he insists. "Incisive, funny, and tinged with melancholy, this timely novel follows two lost but clever souls desperate for connection" (Entertainment Weekly).
June, in need of a job and money, but harboring the remains of a childhood crush on the charming older comedian and former role model, is confident she can handle herself. She accepts. As the weekend unfolds and the enigmatic Hugo gradually reveals appealingly vulnerable facets to his personality, their dynamic proves to be much more complicated and less predictable than June imagined.
"A witty and subtle commentary on sex, power, and social politics" (Refinery 29) and "an outstanding comedic debut" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Stay Up with Hugo Best announces a gloriously irreverent, bold, and winning new voice in fiction.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 2, 2019 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781982102371
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781982102371
- File size: 2013 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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November 15, 2018
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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February 1, 2019
A young, struggling comedian is invited to her idol's home for a Memorial Day weekend party, where she is forced to reconcile the trappings of fame and fortune with reality.Late-night star and stand-up legend Hugo Best is past his prime, and the writing staff on his hit show, Stay Up with Hugo Best, knows it. But by the time 29-year-old June Bloom graduates from page duties to the writers' room, the show is cancelled and she's back to square one. "The worst I had suffered was nonsuccess," June thinks of her inability to care for herself. "I had been provided for. I hadn't been harmed or held back, I hadn't been scarred, but I had quietly failed anyway." After a chance encounter with Hugo in one of his old stand-up haunts, June decides to accept an invitation to his Connecticut house for the holiday weekend. There, she encounters Spencer, Hugo's lonely, caustic teenage son, discovers a forlorn club stage in Hugo's basement, and wanders in and out of rooms designed "to pull everything together under a single umbrella of muted opulence." On the surface, Somers' debut is light and breezy, but the narrative is deft, controlled, and deadly smart. She mines depths out of Hollywood's propensity to look the other way when beloved men behave badly without a hint of preachiness. Instead, she's interested in complicity. June makes a mismatched but pleasantly cynical foil for the alternately sleazy and charming Hugo, whose public image has long been tarnished by an infamous incident with an underage girl. What could be a straightforward novel about a young woman and an older man taking mutual advantage of one another is instead a brilliant study in how rarely we seize opportunities to grow and change for the better--especially if we're lucky enough to get more than one.An outstanding comedic debut about the deeply unfunny trials of growing up in and out of the spotlight. Somers is a writer to watch.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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March 1, 2019
Broke and burned out at age 29, June Bloom works as a writers' assistant on the late-night comedy show Stay Up with Hugo Best, whose iconic comedian host suddenly pulls the plug on his show. An out-of-work June meets him after performing at an open-mic night and gets an invitation to his Greenwich estate for the Memorial Day weekend. She doesn't believe his promise of "no funny business," but the weekend turns out to be different and more illuminating than she expected. From a 2016 Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow; with a 75,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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