M’s Celebrity received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Alex Tsiatsos.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
M’s Celebrity. It was published in April 2017.
What’s the book’s first line?
“My friend died almost a year ago.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
There are really two aspects of this book. This is a fair surface-level synopsis: Steven, the first person narrator, discovers a man whom he refers to as M. Steven believes that M may be a genius, and together they begin a program of unusual activism against what they see as the wrong-headed aspects of their world. Initially, their mostly innocent activities attract like-minded followers. But their eventual focus on Amanda Karlestone, a famously beautiful celebrity whom they believe to be the epitome of everything that they oppose, tests the purity of their motivations. The final series of dramatic confrontations between M’s world and Amanda’s world presents the question of whether M’s project was a work genius or something else entirely.
The synopsis makes it sound like it’s almost a celebrity thriller, and I can’t deny that that was, in part, how it ended up. But I hope that the reader finds something more under the plot. I thought that a story about celebrity was the right vehicle to allow the story to work into more literary themes, specifically themes concerning personal freedom and whether we have a choice over what we do. Our society is fascinated by celebrities for various reasons, and that fascination has famously crossed over into obsession and compulsion.
But I also wanted to contrast that celebrity world with characters like Steven who thinks of himself as intellectual and not susceptible to celebrity obsessions or other impulses. I wanted to show how someone like Steven might naturally be driven to darker, less flattering ends, not as a result merely of celebrity magnetism, but also through the internal logic of his own thoughts.
As I approached the conclusion of the novel, it became necessary to determine whether Steven and M really were onto something special – a new, world-changing form of life – or whether they would succumb to the pressures of the celebrity-driven world. Whether the form of life that Steven and M imagine is actually possible is the question that drives much of the novel. I hope at least that the contrast between Amanda and Steven/M illuminates something genuine about human nature and motivations.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I’ve always been fascinated by the relationship between philosophy and literature. Many “philosophical” novels can be preachy and dense, but from Dostoyevsky to David Foster Wallace, there is a tradition of philosophical novels that balance literary and philosophical qualities in a more elegant way. I wanted to see if I could write a novel in that tradition.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
It’s something different. The narrative voice is intense and introspective, and it mirrors the ultimate plot developments in a way that I hope readers will appreciate. The IndieReader reviewer suggested that the book is not for everyone, and that’s probably fair. But for those who appreciate this sort of work, she noted that it was “an absolute page turner . . . unapologetic and completely unique.”
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
It is not perfectly clear, even to me, but I suppose the narrator, Steven, is the main character. The most distinctive thing about him is his intense desire to do something, to be something, while still being hyper-aware of the world around him and his place in it. He has some similarity to the narrator in Notes From the Underground and perhaps some similarity to Charles Kinbote (from Pale Fire), too.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
It may be ironic in light of the premise of my novel, but, ideally, I would want unknown actors and actresses for all of the main characters. Star-based casting ruins so many movies, and I don’t want the reader to associate the characters with the image of any specific actor or actress. But, because I want to be a good sport, I’ll say this: for Steven, a younger cross between Paul Giamatti and Gabriel Byrne; for M, (the late) Philip Seymour Hoffman, but smaller; and, for Amanda, Megan Fox. I realize that two of these three choices are impossible (and perhaps a little unkind). Casting agents must have a hard job.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene.