Attack of the Theater People: Marc Acito's second novel

Attack of the Theater People, by Marc Acito
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I read the first in this series (How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater) in 2009 while we were at our beloved Sylvia Beach Hotel. In that book, Acito tells the story of Edward Zanni, who is so desperate to go to Juilliard that he and his friends--mostly theater people--resort to embezzlement, money laundering, identity theft, forgery, and blackmail to help him achieve his goals. It's over the top madcap farce with a theatrical twist.

Attack of the Theater People picks up the plot two years later, when Zanni has been kicked out of Juilliard for being too "jazz hands." He ends up becoming a party motivator for bar and bat mitvahs and business events, and soon he's participating in insider trading deals. It's not that Edward does not have any ethics...it's just that he can't keep himself from getting sucked into unethical and illegal arrangements.

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first...at times it was just a bit too over the top for me. But what I found especially fascinating about this book is that since I read the first one, I learned that I know one of the inspirations for one of Edward's extremely loyal, creative friends. (Much of Acito's storytelling is based on his life experiences, obviously spun way beyond what really happened.) This put a whole new spin on the book for me.

Here's Acito--who until this spring lived in Portland but has since moved back to New York--talking about the novel:



You can read more about Acito on his web site or blog.

My Life at Grey Gardens: Weird, weird, weird...

My Life at Grey Gardens: 13 Months and Beyond by Lois Wright

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After seeing the play "Grey Gardens," I was interested to learn more about the dramatic and reclusive Beale women. If this account is to be believed, the play glossed over the reclusive nature of their situation--they actually had a lot more people coming and going out of their lives than represented in the play.

The author of this book, Lois Wright, supposedly lived with the Beales for 13 months...it's never explained why she moved in with them, or on the other hand, why she moved out. What didn't make sense to me was why on earth she would want to live in such a filthy environment in the first place.

It is obvious that this book was self published. It's riddled with typos and grammatical errors. It was in diary format, and much of the text was insubstantial and mundane.

I'm glad I read the book, since I did learn more about the Beales--but it certainly wasn't high-quality literature!



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How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater

How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater by Marc Acito

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At first I couldn't decide whether I found this writer's style annoying or clever. Then he grew on me. Acito is an excellent writer--he comes up with some very witty turns of phrase, many of them raunchy at the same time (e.g., "harder than calculus" to describe--you guessed it!). This book is not for the prude or prissy.

I have heard that this novel is based in truth, and I'm curious to learn more about that. These adventures are so madcap and far out, it's almost easy to believe they could be true. Its characters and conclusions are also not clear cut--they are full of shades of gray (in addition to the sexual preferences of the author and his friends).

I enjoyed this book and will read the sequel.


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