Books : Sellevision: A Novel
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780312422288
ISBN: 0312422288
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: June 01, 2003
Publisher: Picador
Sales Rank: 9676
Studio: Picador
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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.
Amazon.com Review:
Light and funny, with a bitter aftertaste, the action of Sellevision takes place behind the scenes (and on the set) of a successful television shopping network, where a feminine role model, Peggy Jean Smythe, the married, Christian mother of three, begins receiving suspicious e-mail from a viewer who insists that Peggy's hairy earlobe is obscuring her presentation of jewelry during the broadcast. When Peggy fails to respond to the e-mail, but silently waxes her lobe, the cruel notes escalate, until Peggy believes herself to be suffering from a hormonal crisis that has given her a mustache, a gruff voice, and the manner of a lumberjack. Meanwhile, one of her cohosts, Max Andrews, has been fired for accidentally exposing himself during a children's special, and learns just how undesirable a commodity a penis-baring ex-Sellevision host can be on the job market. The book is an unusually smooth read for a first novel, with six or seven truly inspired lines. --Regina Marler
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
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 ... Read More
Rating:  -
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.
Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
Sellevision, By Augusten Borroughs, is sadly dissapointing. It is predictible and childish. By neglecting to develop some of the characters the depth of the main character is limited. This is the story of Peggy Jean, the second leading host on the home shopping network, Sellevision. Peggy Jean is plagued by a stalker, and then devoleps a drug addiction. Lame. Another character, Max, has an embarrassing moment reminiscent of that is broadcast live on national television and is forced to leave his job at Sellevision. To handle Max's struggle to get a new job, Burroughs resorts to a gay cliche in a plot riddled with Cliches. turns to gay porn. Another character, Leigh, has an affair with the boss at Sellevision, and struggles to obtain his love. Bebe, the lead host on Sellevision, is very lonely, and channels this abandonment through shopping. She starts to go on a wide array of dates through the internet.
The thing that really bothered me in Sellevision, is that, the gay man conquered the least. In most books I read, the homosexual man is put down. I thought this would be different from a gay author. I know the world can be more difficult for gay men, but I thought that possibly, for once, the gay man would triumph. All the characters in the book make great accomplishments, While Max struggles to keep hold of his life.
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