Famous After Death

Combines the blackest of black humor with the Mittyesque quality of Thurber, all decked out in an S. J. Perelman suit. One will never read better.

Ben Cheever (and how many has he heaved?) must be a funny, funny man. I imagine him cocking his head like a bird listening for a worm as he encounters the silliness of this world. Famous After Death seems to have been written by a man fascinated by the mores of this country, day and time, but not too reverently. His hero, named Noah and called "No-man" is the perfect observer: largely disengaged from life, he finds it chases him. The book is a romp.

The topic of the shameful things people do for publicity is dealt with in a light,very funny,page turning way but you keep thinking about the topic long after you put down the book. The twist ending was a wonderful and complete surprise.

the author is every bit as gifted as his famous (before and after death) father, but he's infinitely funnier in this wonderfully dark way. Noel Hammersmith is one of the very few truly appealing and affecting male characters since Frank Wheeler in Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road. The quotidian horrors of modern life--Brooks Bros. stops making a perfectly good blues shirt for no reason, blatantly false product advertising hooks the educated consumer who should know better--quite reasonably incite Noel's rage; he rants by mail, hilariously and insanely, to the offending parties when he's not obsessing about being overweight (what a nice change for us female readers--a guy, a straight guy no less, praying for that magically low number to suddenly appear on the scale!), or getting entangled in a wacky international political conspiracy though he never lets you forget he's just your average white-collar commuter schlub. Noel may be an editor for an haute-lit book house, but self-important he's not. Self-mocking is more like it, and in a charmingly muscular, unwhiny way. Noel's authenticity involves the reader (at least this one) instantly; his refreshingly un-politically correct sentiments about women had the unmistakable ring of truth. Author Cheever has an unerring eye for just the right ironic detail that tells you all you need to know about inner (and outer) life. He's a fierce and merciless satirist with a tender heart and a vibrant intelligence. What more could a reader want?

Benjamin Cheever gets better and better. It's rare to find a writer who is so witty without being nasty, and so dependably smart while he's at it. Noel Hammersmith is my new hero, and I'd write to ask him to marry me, but I gather there's already a long line ahead of me.