My Lucky Star

After the brilliant humor and plotting of Blue Heaven, most readers probably found Puttin' on the Ritz a disappointment. Now, at long last, Keenan returns to form with his third installment in the series My Lucky Star. Very funny--and the much debated sex scenes are more suspenseful and funny than libidinous. Thank god, Philip, Gilbert and Claire are back in good form.

I was thrilled to see that Joe Keenan has finally published another book, 10 years or so after "Blue Heaven" and "Putting on the Ritz." I picked up this book at about 3:00am suffering from jet lag, and read it to the end in one sitting. At several points, I was literally gasping for breath I was laughing so hard. Keenan is a master at methodically building comical suspense and then releasing it with an explosive and hysterical one-liner ( ". . . that would have made lesser women fall to their knees and ululate in despair"). I can't wait for the next one. Meanwhile, I'll keep rereading these fantastic books and savoring Keenan's ingenious nuggets of humor again and again.

If you like Hollywood trash and if you like side-splitting comedy, this is the book for you. However, this is written from a gay man's perspective so right wing conservative readers may have a problem with that. Well, with the events in DC in the last few days, maybe not. There is only one real sex scene and trust me, it's PURE comedy. Now with the warnings out of the way, how many times do you read a book where the witty dialog makes you laugh out loud? You are guaranteed with this book to do that. More plot twists than a rattlesnake curled up for a night of sleep you will read this opened eyed as you are amazed where the plot takes you. Three New York friends land in Hollywood with no experience and a screenwriting gig for the top star in Hollywood (think Tom Cruise)? How do neophytes land such a role? Well, the usual way, "I bull________ them" to borrow from Chris Slater in Modern Romance. Changed the name on "Casablanca" and passed it off as his own to an action Producer too dumb to know. Of course, it also didn't hurt that the very attractive mother of one of the writers just married an older very wealthy movie mogul. But all things are not as they seemed. Were they really hired or is it just a front? Read this book for pure enjoyment and fun watching the "blessed people of the West" manipulate and scheme their way in this outrageous comedy.

At last, Joe Keenan has returned from his oh-so-enviable job as writer/producer on Frasier to the less-renumerative but much-anticipated role as author of another Philip/Gilbert/Claire farce. In "My Lucky Star", he takes on the Hollywood of closeted stars, has-beens, and wannabes, and folks such as our heroes, Philip and Gilbert, putative scriptwriters who wander cluelessly through perils that only our beloved Claire can, eventually, negoitiate. Fans such as I will revel in the improbable mess our heroes get into before, as usual, in the last few chapters, Claire (as always) reluctantly and amazingly rescues them. (I challenge anyone but Keenan to figure out beforehand a way out of the imbroglio Phil and Gil get into!) Others may want to guess whom Keenan has modeled his megastar characters on. (Okay, I have my own thoughts.) Myself, I chuckled and guffawed all the way through. Keenan's wit retains its pointedness like an Egyptian dagger, sharp and bloody, skewering the cast while benevolently nodding to the occasional kind cameo by current Famous Names. You want dish? You'll get it, however fictional. And boy, is this dish delectable! Pity, I suppose, that only we, the readers, get the full glory of what would wonderfully appear in Variety or on-line, were it not for our heroine's machinations. But Philip's exquisite, explicit story more than makes up for what many of us would love to see displayed on page one. Imagine the biggest gay Hollywood scandal you can concoct. Now triple it, complicate it beyond all reason, and try your best to get out of it. You can't, can you? Well, Keenan can. How? Well, I guess you'll have to read it just as I did, dude.

I hadn't read the two earlier books, but have now purchased them and look forward to doing so after reading My Lucky Star. The book is simply laugh out loud funny. I found myself trying to read it fast to find out what happened next, then going back to reread certain passages because some of the one-liners were so clever and witty. Buy this book -- you won't be disappointed. And no, I'm not Joe Keenana's publicist.