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The Bestseller
From a New York Times–bestselling author, comes this “highly entertaining tale [with] considerable humor and some cynical fun at the expense of the book business” (Publishers Weekly). At Davis & Dash, one of New York’s most prestigious publishing houses, five new authors will be published—but only one of them will be a bestseller. They have worked long and hard to write their novels of romance and murder, drama and love, but the story behind the stories is even more exciting. And the vicious competition to get the right agent, the perfect editor, and the choice spot on the bestseller list must be seen to be believed. From the author of The First Wives Club, this “dishy” novel set in New York’s book publishing industry (Glamour) is a fun behind-the-scenes romp with “lots of romance and revenge” (The Washington Post Book World). “Extremely satisfying.” —The New York Times Book Review
724 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Olivia Goldsmith
41 books149 followersOlivia Goldsmith (January 1, 1949 - January 15, 2004) was an American author, best known for her first novel The First Wives Club (1992), which was adapted into the movie The First Wives Club (1996).
She was born Randy Goldfield in Dumont, New Jersey, but changed her name to Justine Goldfield and later to Justine Rendal. She took up writing following a divorce in which she said her husband got almost everything (including her Jaguar and the country house). A graduate of New York University, she was a partner at the management consultants Booz & Company in New York prior to becoming a writer.
Many of her books can be described as revenge fantasies; a constant theme is the mistreatment of women by the men they love, but with the women coming out the winners in the end.
Controversially, in late 1996 Goldsmith said, in response to an Entertainment Weekly reporter's question, that her favorite event of 1996 was when Bob Dole fell off a stage during a campaign function.
She also wrote several books for children, which were published under the name "Justine Rendal."
Goldsmith died as a result of complications from the administration of anaesthesia before cosmetic surgery. Her final two books were published posthumously.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, amended.
She was born Randy Goldfield in Dumont, New Jersey, but changed her name to Justine Goldfield and later to Justine Rendal. She took up writing following a divorce in which she said her husband got almost everything (including her Jaguar and the country house). A graduate of New York University, she was a partner at the management consultants Booz & Company in New York prior to becoming a writer.
Many of her books can be described as revenge fantasies; a constant theme is the mistreatment of women by the men they love, but with the women coming out the winners in the end.
Controversially, in late 1996 Goldsmith said, in response to an Entertainment Weekly reporter's question, that her favorite event of 1996 was when Bob Dole fell off a stage during a campaign function.
She also wrote several books for children, which were published under the name "Justine Rendal."
Goldsmith died as a result of complications from the administration of anaesthesia before cosmetic surgery. Her final two books were published posthumously.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, amended.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 340 reviews
August 7, 2021
I've never read a book by Olivia Goldsmith before and clearly she's not the author for me. It's a book which has done well by all accounts but after reading it I honestly can't remember why I picked it up in the first place.
Good god, 786 pages? They should have taken the advice given in the book and cut it down by ten percent to save a national forest. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing better in life than getting cozy with a nice long book that you can't put down. Unfortunately, this one was all too easy to put down. The first half of the book, which seemed to drag on forever, was choppy. The brief chapters, told from the viewpoint of numerous main characters, seemed to break up the flow of the story rather than contribute to it. Goldsmith is channeling Maeve Binchy without the empathy and heart.There was a lot of insider name-dropping and catty industry gossip, which may interest some
people but I found petty and gratuitous.
What particularly irritated me was the lack of satisfactory drama. Every time characters were about to collide, the author cut away to a different scene, thus leaving the reader wondering what in the world happened. By the time the storyline circled back around to those characters, the characters had moved past the conflict, with the author merely hinting at the resolution. This may be an effective hook to keep the reader turning pages but it left me feeling cheated out of the main highlights of the story. After semi-patiently wading through this massive tome, I felt I should at least have been allowed to witness the crescendos of the plot, instead of just being told about it afterward.
The characters were hard to like, especially at first, so it wasn't easy to plod through the massive time committement necessary for a book of this length.
Camilla and Frederick kept operating at cross-purposes, a common enough ploy for a romance angle, but instead of building sexual tension and increasing interest, it just made me wonder why they bothered with each other.
Gerald is fastidiously slimy, but I will say that in the early parts of the book the author used obscure words to excellent effect in establishing Gerald's prissy and pedantic personality.
Susann is a supercilious, whiny, pathetic creature, but she was one of the few characters who actually had a growth arc by the end of the book. Her long-suffering companion Edith, undeveloped as she was, was a caricature straight out of a gothic novel, the silent and piteous poor relation used more as a slave than a companion, but in this wasteland of self-indulgent narcissists, she seemed almost normal with her endless knitting and unobtrusive competence.
Speaking of caricatures, Pam, the heartless bitch-on-wheels editor, was so wholly unlikable and irredeemable that her invisible son couldn't even make her seem human. As writing advances through the ages, reader's expectations also evolve, so it's rare to see an antagonist without a single redeeming quality, whose character only gets more bizarre as the story moves along, Pam is evil to the point of being cartoonish.
While Daniel's betrayal of his wife Judith certainly made him a villain, her absolute idiocy in trusting him far beyond anything reasoned or believable almost made me root for him, cardboard character that he was.
Opal is really the only heroic character in the whole book, yet even the author's portrayal of her is flawed in that everything happens too serendipitously for credibility. Actually, so much of this novel's plot is comprised of unrealistic dumb luck that it stretches the reader's suspension of disbelief too far.
Emma, who is supposed to be Glinda to Pam's Wicked Witch of the West, doesn't inspire me to like her much. Yes, she takes pity on an old woman with an unsolicited manuscript and manipulates two worthy books onto the publishing list, but even she isn't really three-dimensional. Her on-again-off-again romance with an agent isn't very interesting. It lacks depth, and the inevitable conflicts necessary to the plot of any romantic interest these days seems contrived, although I did like the way her lesbianism is presented matter-of-factly, without fanfare. But although she is presented as being competent at her job, she doesn't seem very invested in the books she chooses after they've made it to the list.
A couple of smaller issues: At one point the author felt compelled ot mention that the receptionist, who barely appears anywhere in the story other than here, is black, as in (I'm paraphrasing here); She ignored the congratulations of the black receptionist. Totally unnecessary adjective, with hints of racism. She does it again with the auditor from Price Waterhouse: "He was black, and he looked a lot like a Doberman pinscher." Which leads into another issue. Where are the ethnic characters? This is one of the whitest books I've seen in a long time. Surely, even in the 1990s, there were people of color in the publishing world. Somewhere? Anywhere? Not just at the front desk? On the other hand, Goldsmith shows a degree of prescience in her scene where Camilla's boss asks her out. In today's #metoo environment Craig's politically correct approach makes perfect sense but back in the 1990s it wasn't common at all for men to ask permission to court a woman in the workplace, or anywhere else, for that matter.
As an unpublished writer myself, I found "The Bestseller" ultimately discouraging and depressing. The tortuous road to successful publication depicted in this novel, coupled with the cast of deplorable characters without a shred of human decency or integrity, makes me want to give up any ambition to become an author because I wouldn't want to get within snarling distance of such a cut-throat, cannibalistic profession.
But by far the biggest sin is that the book is predictable. From the very opening of each character's story, it was obvious who would prevail to their happy ending and who would get a much deserved come-uppance. Sadly, I didn't necessarily feel everyone who got their fairy tale ending deserved it, but the trend was inexorable from the start. In the end, all loose ends were neatly tied up. Too neatly, in my opinion, but some people like that.
In short, if you're into insider dishing about the publishing industry, you may like this book, but if you're looking for an enjoyable read with good character development, this is probably not the book for you. It certainly wasn't for me. It dashed all my fantasies about the book industry being more worthy than the entertainment business. According to Olivia Goldsmith, publishing is just as shallow, superficial, and greedy as anything found in Hollywood. Sad to say, I believe her.
Good god, 786 pages? They should have taken the advice given in the book and cut it down by ten percent to save a national forest. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing better in life than getting cozy with a nice long book that you can't put down. Unfortunately, this one was all too easy to put down. The first half of the book, which seemed to drag on forever, was choppy. The brief chapters, told from the viewpoint of numerous main characters, seemed to break up the flow of the story rather than contribute to it. Goldsmith is channeling Maeve Binchy without the empathy and heart.There was a lot of insider name-dropping and catty industry gossip, which may interest some
people but I found petty and gratuitous.
What particularly irritated me was the lack of satisfactory drama. Every time characters were about to collide, the author cut away to a different scene, thus leaving the reader wondering what in the world happened. By the time the storyline circled back around to those characters, the characters had moved past the conflict, with the author merely hinting at the resolution. This may be an effective hook to keep the reader turning pages but it left me feeling cheated out of the main highlights of the story. After semi-patiently wading through this massive tome, I felt I should at least have been allowed to witness the crescendos of the plot, instead of just being told about it afterward.
The characters were hard to like, especially at first, so it wasn't easy to plod through the massive time committement necessary for a book of this length.
Camilla and Frederick kept operating at cross-purposes, a common enough ploy for a romance angle, but instead of building sexual tension and increasing interest, it just made me wonder why they bothered with each other.
Gerald is fastidiously slimy, but I will say that in the early parts of the book the author used obscure words to excellent effect in establishing Gerald's prissy and pedantic personality.
Susann is a supercilious, whiny, pathetic creature, but she was one of the few characters who actually had a growth arc by the end of the book. Her long-suffering companion Edith, undeveloped as she was, was a caricature straight out of a gothic novel, the silent and piteous poor relation used more as a slave than a companion, but in this wasteland of self-indulgent narcissists, she seemed almost normal with her endless knitting and unobtrusive competence.
Speaking of caricatures, Pam, the heartless bitch-on-wheels editor, was so wholly unlikable and irredeemable that her invisible son couldn't even make her seem human. As writing advances through the ages, reader's expectations also evolve, so it's rare to see an antagonist without a single redeeming quality, whose character only gets more bizarre as the story moves along, Pam is evil to the point of being cartoonish.
While Daniel's betrayal of his wife Judith certainly made him a villain, her absolute idiocy in trusting him far beyond anything reasoned or believable almost made me root for him, cardboard character that he was.
Opal is really the only heroic character in the whole book, yet even the author's portrayal of her is flawed in that everything happens too serendipitously for credibility. Actually, so much of this novel's plot is comprised of unrealistic dumb luck that it stretches the reader's suspension of disbelief too far.
Emma, who is supposed to be Glinda to Pam's Wicked Witch of the West, doesn't inspire me to like her much. Yes, she takes pity on an old woman with an unsolicited manuscript and manipulates two worthy books onto the publishing list, but even she isn't really three-dimensional. Her on-again-off-again romance with an agent isn't very interesting. It lacks depth, and the inevitable conflicts necessary to the plot of any romantic interest these days seems contrived, although I did like the way her lesbianism is presented matter-of-factly, without fanfare. But although she is presented as being competent at her job, she doesn't seem very invested in the books she chooses after they've made it to the list.
A couple of smaller issues: At one point the author felt compelled ot mention that the receptionist, who barely appears anywhere in the story other than here, is black, as in (I'm paraphrasing here); She ignored the congratulations of the black receptionist. Totally unnecessary adjective, with hints of racism. She does it again with the auditor from Price Waterhouse: "He was black, and he looked a lot like a Doberman pinscher." Which leads into another issue. Where are the ethnic characters? This is one of the whitest books I've seen in a long time. Surely, even in the 1990s, there were people of color in the publishing world. Somewhere? Anywhere? Not just at the front desk? On the other hand, Goldsmith shows a degree of prescience in her scene where Camilla's boss asks her out. In today's #metoo environment Craig's politically correct approach makes perfect sense but back in the 1990s it wasn't common at all for men to ask permission to court a woman in the workplace, or anywhere else, for that matter.
As an unpublished writer myself, I found "The Bestseller" ultimately discouraging and depressing. The tortuous road to successful publication depicted in this novel, coupled with the cast of deplorable characters without a shred of human decency or integrity, makes me want to give up any ambition to become an author because I wouldn't want to get within snarling distance of such a cut-throat, cannibalistic profession.
But by far the biggest sin is that the book is predictable. From the very opening of each character's story, it was obvious who would prevail to their happy ending and who would get a much deserved come-uppance. Sadly, I didn't necessarily feel everyone who got their fairy tale ending deserved it, but the trend was inexorable from the start. In the end, all loose ends were neatly tied up. Too neatly, in my opinion, but some people like that.
In short, if you're into insider dishing about the publishing industry, you may like this book, but if you're looking for an enjoyable read with good character development, this is probably not the book for you. It certainly wasn't for me. It dashed all my fantasies about the book industry being more worthy than the entertainment business. According to Olivia Goldsmith, publishing is just as shallow, superficial, and greedy as anything found in Hollywood. Sad to say, I believe her.
January 28, 2012
Wow, what a blast from the past. This story is a primal scream (however fun and dishy!) from the days just before the Internet, when the big problem was that giant booksellers like Borders were devouring small independents. How quaint that seems now. Look at all that has happened! As a writer, I almost feel like self-pubbing and my own efforts at promotion will be the new normal for authors, the only logical way to go. Amazing to mark time from the point this book was written. But a good, enjoyable beach read.
June 8, 2016
I enjoyed American Psycho once I realized it was meant to be dark (very dark) humor, and I did some web surfing to find out more about it. In one article there was a reference to this book, where 'Chad Weston' has written a controversial book called 'Schizoboy' that causes no end of trouble for the publisher. That sounded like fun, so I bought the book.
At first this roman a clef drove me crazy. Aside from the Chad Weston/Bret Easton and Duplicity of Men/Confederancy of Dunces references, I didn't know who any of the characters were meant to be. As I progressed deeper into the book, I realized that it didn't matter. Not much has changed in traditional publishing. Dead writers with miraculously discovered manuscripts? Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman. English writer with smash hit first novel? Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. And so on.
I'm sure the insecurity and infighting in the trad pub world is even more intense, threatened as it is by the internet and the choice that writers have now to be independent of the vagaries of publishing houses that price their books, even their ebooks, out of the market.
As a freelance book editor, I follow the publishing industry at a distance. I'm far from an insider, but I recognized the humor of this book and the real pain of decent people at the mercy of the land sharks who consider them only in terms of their potential to swell the bottom line of the arrogant assholes who have themselves been gobbled up by giant corporations.
Revenge porn at its best.
At first this roman a clef drove me crazy. Aside from the Chad Weston/Bret Easton and Duplicity of Men/Confederancy of Dunces references, I didn't know who any of the characters were meant to be. As I progressed deeper into the book, I realized that it didn't matter. Not much has changed in traditional publishing. Dead writers with miraculously discovered manuscripts? Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman. English writer with smash hit first novel? Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. And so on.
I'm sure the insecurity and infighting in the trad pub world is even more intense, threatened as it is by the internet and the choice that writers have now to be independent of the vagaries of publishing houses that price their books, even their ebooks, out of the market.
As a freelance book editor, I follow the publishing industry at a distance. I'm far from an insider, but I recognized the humor of this book and the real pain of decent people at the mercy of the land sharks who consider them only in terms of their potential to swell the bottom line of the arrogant assholes who have themselves been gobbled up by giant corporations.
Revenge porn at its best.
November 9, 2016
This book is so much fun - so reminiscent of the 1980's Sidney Sheldon, Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins novels. Well, much better than Jackie Collins, but you know what I mean. This came from my Book Riot list of "books about books" and deals with five authors writing novels and hoping to get them published. It's a great look inside the publishing business, some of which I know is true since I have a friend in the business. There's even a character who reminded me of my friend! It's just delicious with gossip and lots of name dropping (although it's fiction, she uses many real names to make it sound more authentic). And you will find yourself really rooting for some of these people. Others, you will hate, but that was part of the fun of it!
August 8, 2018
OMG!! This book was absolutely, positively the most boring book I have ever read. 700 pages of crap! I almost did not finish it, but I mad a promise to myself a while back, that no matter how bad the book was, I was going to finish it. This is the first book that made me want to go back on that promise. The only good thing about the book, it that all the horrible people got what they deserved in the end. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea. I like lots of action and suspense in my books and this was definitely not that! Not for me. I would not read again.
June 13, 2023
I enjoyed some of the characters Goldsmith wrote tremendously, but for me there were fatal flaws in this novel.
For a book with strong story lines focused on editing and rewriting, this book needed a good editor and a good rewriting. There were too many obvious errors. It would have been hard for Goldsmith to catch all of them as she was intimately familiar with the manuscript. It should have been easy for outside eyes to see them.
The first one that made me pause (and also confused me) was a passage where the character is "Alf" on parts of the page and "Byron" on other parts of the page, and not in a way that made sense. I paused in my reading, wondering who was in the fictional room. I had to backtrack to the beginning of the scene before I realized that there were only two people in the room and not three.
Shortly after that, I began to keep track of the errors or missteps.
"He needed the next contract forlornly." Forlornly? You can feel forlorn about not having another contract, you can desperately need it (or think you do), but you cannot need something forlornly.
Camilla "couldn't bare to" give up the writing life. Bare?
When Roberta exclaimed, that she caught typos in almost every book she read, I laughed. Imagine fictional Roberta reading The Bestseller.
And then there was the character Chad Weston (a barely disguised Bret Easton Ellison) who wrote a terrible and vile book. When Davis & Dash reneges, refusing to publish the book, Goldsmith writes that Gerald thinks, "Davis & Dash had been made to look like a repressor of the arts" and that Weston's book "was being touted by liberals as a political rallying point. No wonder the Republicans had come down so hard on the National Endowment for the Arts!"
Later Weston appears in Roberta's bookstore and, realizing she hasn't stocked his novel, shouts, "The ACLU is going to handle my suit against Davis & Dash... It's a First Amendment issue.
If I am generous, maybe those examples are exactly how the two characters would have framed their fears and/or arguments, but I found myself shouting, "It's not a First Amendment issue!" Publishers do not violate the First Amendment when they refuse to publish a book they find vile or badly written. The ACLU would never take the case because it is not the case of government repression, it has nothing to do with the National Endowment for the Arts. In our world, too often do we have to remind people the the Bill of Rights is there to protect us against the government.
All of these and more made me really want to give this book only two stars, but because I loved a few of the characters and wanted to find out how the storylines played out, I decided three stars was a fairer rating.
For a book with strong story lines focused on editing and rewriting, this book needed a good editor and a good rewriting. There were too many obvious errors. It would have been hard for Goldsmith to catch all of them as she was intimately familiar with the manuscript. It should have been easy for outside eyes to see them.
The first one that made me pause (and also confused me) was a passage where the character is "Alf" on parts of the page and "Byron" on other parts of the page, and not in a way that made sense. I paused in my reading, wondering who was in the fictional room. I had to backtrack to the beginning of the scene before I realized that there were only two people in the room and not three.
Shortly after that, I began to keep track of the errors or missteps.
"He needed the next contract forlornly." Forlornly? You can feel forlorn about not having another contract, you can desperately need it (or think you do), but you cannot need something forlornly.
Camilla "couldn't bare to" give up the writing life. Bare?
When Roberta exclaimed, that she caught typos in almost every book she read, I laughed. Imagine fictional Roberta reading The Bestseller.
And then there was the character Chad Weston (a barely disguised Bret Easton Ellison) who wrote a terrible and vile book. When Davis & Dash reneges, refusing to publish the book, Goldsmith writes that Gerald thinks, "Davis & Dash had been made to look like a repressor of the arts" and that Weston's book "was being touted by liberals as a political rallying point. No wonder the Republicans had come down so hard on the National Endowment for the Arts!"
Later Weston appears in Roberta's bookstore and, realizing she hasn't stocked his novel, shouts, "The ACLU is going to handle my suit against Davis & Dash... It's a First Amendment issue.
If I am generous, maybe those examples are exactly how the two characters would have framed their fears and/or arguments, but I found myself shouting, "It's not a First Amendment issue!" Publishers do not violate the First Amendment when they refuse to publish a book they find vile or badly written. The ACLU would never take the case because it is not the case of government repression, it has nothing to do with the National Endowment for the Arts. In our world, too often do we have to remind people the the Bill of Rights is there to protect us against the government.
All of these and more made me really want to give this book only two stars, but because I loved a few of the characters and wanted to find out how the storylines played out, I decided three stars was a fairer rating.
March 22, 2014
I actually really like this book. I hadn't read it in about a million years, but I picked it up the other day and it was just what I needed -- fast paced, funny, brain candy. The characters are vivid and amusing, and aspiring writers and published authors will love the behind the scenes look at the publishing industry. Yes, the book is a little dated (ahem, sky high advances) But lines like "The only good author is a dead author" and other quotes from 90's publishing icons feel dead-on authentic (especially if you're a mid-lister.) Goldsmith busts through the fantasy of publishing, and weaves a story about hopes, dreams, and life in print. What I hated: Two different characters describe the same manuscript as an "abortion" in their inner monologues. This is a unique and vivid description -- it's pretty unlikely that two different characters would use the very same word unless one of them was a psychic. What I liked: the perfect sort of book to read with sand between your toes.
April 9, 2021
Apparently this is a prolific author, but this was the first of her books that I have read. It was a slog.
The shame is that the author draws great characters. There is a deep cast, some so interesting that I really wanted to see how things turned out for then and some so disgusting and evil, I really hoped they would get what was coming to them. And some aspects of the book were fascinating as one was walked through the process of getting a book published.
Ironically, this book about publishers, editors and writers needed a good editor. This book would have been a 4 star, with about a third less.
The shame is that the author draws great characters. There is a deep cast, some so interesting that I really wanted to see how things turned out for then and some so disgusting and evil, I really hoped they would get what was coming to them. And some aspects of the book were fascinating as one was walked through the process of getting a book published.
Ironically, this book about publishers, editors and writers needed a good editor. This book would have been a 4 star, with about a third less.
January 10, 2009
This is the best fiction I have ever read! This story takes the reader through the dramatic and cut throat world of book publishing, where relationships are tested, backs are stabbed, secrets are unveiled, and the lives of a half dozen strangers are mysteriously woven together all leading to a wonderful surprise ending! HIGHLY reccommended.
February 10, 2011
~BOOK BABIES~
I was reading the book during the trip to South East Asia in January 2007. Despite the beauty of Thailand, Malaysia and Laos around me, I could not wait to continue reading!!! It is a very touching, wonderfully written story of five authors, writing, selling, publishing their "book-babies": but the only one is to stand on the top... While it is always difficult for me to give books away, with this one, from the first pages I knew it is on my permanent bookshelf; four years later and I have dragged it with me through some seven countries... I probably need to purchase a digital copy for my Kindle and let the original rest on the shelves in the study room of my Mom's house!
Victoria Evangelina Belyavskaya
October 30, 2021
In the middle of the night after sticking with a quarter of the book, I said "nope" out loud and closed my kindle. I got sick of reading about greed, status, desperation, and deception in the publishing world. An unpleasant novel filled with unpleasant people from what seemed like a "tell all" insider's perspective on real authors, agents, and publishing houses. The opening story about a woman who kills herself after too many rejections sounded much like the story of John Kennedy Toole, author of the magnificent A Confederacy of Dunces . His mother somehow was able to get his manuscript published after his death.
May 29, 2021
You know how those home renovation shows are called DIY porn? Well, this book is writer’s porn and great fun! Written in the days before the Internet and self-publishing, it’s an outdated and hilarious romp through the actions of half a dozen or so authors, editors and publishers. Every chapter begins with a terrific quotation about writing, editing or publishing, and sprinkled throughout are little bon mots about real book sales by real authors. If you enjoyed the book or movie of The First Wives Club, also by this author, you’ll enjoy The Bestseller.
March 5, 2014
Not knowing what wanted to read I picked this book cause I still love to read books like Queenie,Lace and that kind of thing.
A queenie it was not but it was an enjoyable read. This was written before the internet time but I am sure there is still a lot of cheating going on.
At first it began kinda slow with lots of people having their own chapter but once you get to know them it becomes better and you really start to enjoy it.
Very large book with many pages.
A queenie it was not but it was an enjoyable read. This was written before the internet time but I am sure there is still a lot of cheating going on.
At first it began kinda slow with lots of people having their own chapter but once you get to know them it becomes better and you really start to enjoy it.
Very large book with many pages.
September 6, 2010
I read this right after A Confederacy of Dunces, and one of the stories seems about the same as O'Toole's.
There are a lot of terrible people in this book. Terrible, greedy, selfish people who deserve a punch to the forehead. I spent a lot of time thinking about who I wanted to be THE bestseller- who wins?- and I was pleased with the final outcome.
There are a lot of terrible people in this book. Terrible, greedy, selfish people who deserve a punch to the forehead. I spent a lot of time thinking about who I wanted to be THE bestseller- who wins?- and I was pleased with the final outcome.
March 14, 2018
This is a book about books, although from the writing and publishing angle. The reason I didn't give the book another star is the truly reprehensible characters in this book. Luckily there were a couple characters that redeemed it.
December 12, 2017
To be reviewed
May 16, 2022
Fun. Fantastic. Full of Life and Scandal:)
I struggled a bit (the first 5%) with the book and then fell in love with it.
Oh the things you will learn about publishing companies… True this is fiction. Still, it’s clear that this was a world in the early 90’s that the author knew very well.
The book is like menage a trois of Jackie Collins, a DK guide to publishing, and Anne Rivers Siddons.
There’s scandal, super in-depth information about the publishing world, and a fun heartfelt story.
Most of the book takes place in NYC which is the publishing mecca after all. There are characters to love, pity, hate, and root for.
I struggled a bit (the first 5%) with the book and then fell in love with it.
Oh the things you will learn about publishing companies… True this is fiction. Still, it’s clear that this was a world in the early 90’s that the author knew very well.
The book is like menage a trois of Jackie Collins, a DK guide to publishing, and Anne Rivers Siddons.
There’s scandal, super in-depth information about the publishing world, and a fun heartfelt story.
Most of the book takes place in NYC which is the publishing mecca after all. There are characters to love, pity, hate, and root for.
April 19, 2021
Loved this book. A great story.
July 5, 2021
I got bored and had zero interest in any of the 5 "writers " just reading their whiny thoughts and background..couldnt care less who became successful or where their story was going
nothing humorous about any of them. just a bunch of drama .so I quit .
.REALLY cant believe people are that masochistic they slogged through the whole thing
ps reading other comments of those victims it was so obvious in the into bios that Daniel was gonna do what he did and the other relationships .
ps first wives club ? also stupid and mind numbing but at least it had a plot semi interesting .though you cant pay me to read it though.
nothing humorous about any of them. just a bunch of drama .so I quit .
.REALLY cant believe people are that masochistic they slogged through the whole thing
ps reading other comments of those victims it was so obvious in the into bios that Daniel was gonna do what he did and the other relationships .
ps first wives club ? also stupid and mind numbing but at least it had a plot semi interesting .though you cant pay me to read it though.
October 14, 2008
Light and a good book for my recent trip, when I needed something to fill the time spent on airplanes and subway rides, etc. It reads a lot like a soap opera -- tawdry, yet compelling. Few of the characters are sympathetic, and few that are sympathetic are believable. Actually none of the characters, except maybe the editor, Emma Ashton, are believable. I also found the constant name-dropping annoying.
December 16, 2008
This wasn't bad -- if you like the author's other books, you'll probably enjoy this one too. It wasn't as juicy as I'd hoped, but it's an interesting look at the publishing industry, and the travails of 5 authors trying to get the next big hit. The stories were rather disjointed at first, but they tied together nicely in the end. And as always, with Goldsmith's novels, the good people get what they deserve and the bad people get what *they* deserve.
May 5, 2009
My favorite of Olivia Goldsmith's books so far---an incredibly ironic peek inside the mysterious world of publishing.
September 10, 2021
A dishy, dramatic, dated doorstop of a book
May 26, 2021
In addition to being about the book publishing world, Goldsmith elected to tell the story from multiple points of view: a several writers, a couple of editors, and a publisher.
Although she does a yeoman-like job, the difficulty of keeping track of who is who and why this one feels a particular motivation remains. Yet there also remains tons of interesting, inside prattle from the publishing life in the early 1990s (publ. 1995).
I can't wait to find out how Goldsmith resolves the problem of the professor-husband who usurps his wife's novel and proceeds in gaslighting her.
Five POVs fully developed is like 5 novels, but Goldsmith didn’t deliver all the climaxes, sometimes only the results of the climaxes (esp. the Jude Daniels storyline ended without appropriate catharsis).
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the immersion into the whirl of NYC publishers.
Although she does a yeoman-like job, the difficulty of keeping track of who is who and why this one feels a particular motivation remains. Yet there also remains tons of interesting, inside prattle from the publishing life in the early 1990s (publ. 1995).
I can't wait to find out how Goldsmith resolves the problem of the professor-husband who usurps his wife's novel and proceeds in gaslighting her.
Five POVs fully developed is like 5 novels, but Goldsmith didn’t deliver all the climaxes, sometimes only the results of the climaxes (esp. the Jude Daniels storyline ended without appropriate catharsis).
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the immersion into the whirl of NYC publishers.
August 23, 2021
I doubt I'm alone in this feeling--that anything is possible after finishing a good a book. A really good book, you know the difference. I haven't read a good book in awhile, one that I've really connected one. There are several already this year I've really enjoyed, ones I've started to recommend without hesitation, but this novel, The Bestseller, really did something to me. It didn't end as expected, though I wasn't sure how it would: there can only be one bestseller. I also found it quite motivating, but we'll see how diligent I can be. Ambition is one thing, and drive quite another.
April 7, 2021
Dishy gossipy sprawling story, this felt way too long for awhile, and then wrapped up nicely all of a sudden. It was very much of its time, and nostalgic in a strange way since I certainly never lived anything like this! I did sell books at a Barnes and Noble roundabout this time though, so some of the namedropping and insider notes felt compelling.
November 15, 2021
This is the first time I've rated a book that I haven't finished. It's overly long for sure. I am usually fine at keeping characters straight, but not this time.
At any rate, life's too short to slog through this one.
At any rate, life's too short to slog through this one.
April 17, 2021
Almost gave up on this one. So many characters I didn't like. And, it was very long. But, eventually, I got into the story and ended up enjoying it.
November 27, 2021
Dickens meets the modern publishing business. Very entertaining.
April 5, 2021
Nobody has ever committed suicide while reading a good book, but many have tried while trying to write one - Robert Byrne
Olivia Goldsmith's 'The Bestseller' follows the melodramatic lives of five writers as they fight to get their work published and recognised. Reading this book felt like watching a movie serial - it had underdog heroines, passionate artists, one dimensional villains and a whole lot of sex, scandal and corruption. The reading experience was made more fun for me as it was such a blast-from-the-past; it's written and set in the late 90's and is very much a book of it's time. Goldsmith name drops real authors and 90's publishing controversy; I especially enjoyed the thinly veiled references to the circus around the publishing of 'American Psycho'.
It's interesting to compare the concerns the publishing world had then and the problems it faces now. Independent book shops and publishing houses now have to contend with the behemoth that is Amazon. The rise and accessibility of the internet has led to the proliferation of online publications and self-published e-books. Also, e-books and e-readers in general! I'd love to read a fictional book about the publishing industry today.
While the book did provide many insights about the writing process of various different authors and the world of publishing with a big name publishing house, it is mainly about the personal problems of the writers and how those problems are resolved. The resolutions are suspiciously neat, so neat and so rewarding to the reader that 'The Bestseller' reads like an adult fairy tales ( the bad guys are defeated and the good guys live happily ever after).
Olivia Goldsmith's 'The Bestseller' follows the melodramatic lives of five writers as they fight to get their work published and recognised. Reading this book felt like watching a movie serial - it had underdog heroines, passionate artists, one dimensional villains and a whole lot of sex, scandal and corruption. The reading experience was made more fun for me as it was such a blast-from-the-past; it's written and set in the late 90's and is very much a book of it's time. Goldsmith name drops real authors and 90's publishing controversy; I especially enjoyed the thinly veiled references to the circus around the publishing of 'American Psycho'.
It's interesting to compare the concerns the publishing world had then and the problems it faces now. Independent book shops and publishing houses now have to contend with the behemoth that is Amazon. The rise and accessibility of the internet has led to the proliferation of online publications and self-published e-books. Also, e-books and e-readers in general! I'd love to read a fictional book about the publishing industry today.
While the book did provide many insights about the writing process of various different authors and the world of publishing with a big name publishing house, it is mainly about the personal problems of the writers and how those problems are resolved. The resolutions are suspiciously neat, so neat and so rewarding to the reader that 'The Bestseller' reads like an adult fairy tales ( the bad guys are defeated and the good guys live happily ever after).
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