Sellevision: A Novel
by: Augusten Burroughs
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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
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 sixty 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.
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
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 sixty 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.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Entertaining!!!
This is his first book, but not the first one I read... I was expecting more "memoir-style" vs. novel -- however -- JUST AS WONDERFUL!!Charming, witty, very, very good character building!!I felt like I know those people.
Rating: - This has to be a work of non fiction...
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. ... Read More
Rating: - Another Great Showing From Burroughs
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 ... Read More
Rating: - Good first try
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 ... Read More
Rating: 
- Terrible
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 ... Read More
- Entertaining!!!This is his first book, but not the first one I read... I was expecting more "memoir-style" vs. novel -- however -- JUST AS WONDERFUL!!Charming, witty, very, very good character building!!I felt like I know those people.
- This has to be a work of non fiction...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. ... Read More
- Another Great Showing From BurroughsSellevision 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 ... Read More
- Good first tryI 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 ... Read More
- TerribleThis 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 ... Read More
