★★
SYNOPSIS:
June Bloom is a broke, cynical twenty-nine-year-old writer's assistant on the late-night comedy show, Stay Up with Hugo Best. Hugo Best is in his sixties, a beloved icon of TV and humour, and a notorious womaniser. After he unexpectedly retires and a party is held for his now unemployed staff, June ends up at a dive bar for an open-mic night and prepares for the sad return to the anonymous comedian lifestyle. What she’s not prepared for is a run-in with Hugo at that dive bar. Nor for the invitation that swiftly follows: Hugo asks June to come to his mansion in Greenwich for the long Memorial Day weekend. “No funny business,” he insists.
June, in need of a job and money, confident she can handle herself, but secretly harboring the remains of a childhood crush on the charming older comedian and former role model, accepts. The exact terms of the visit are never spelled out, but June is realistic and clear-eyed enough to guess. Even so, as the weekend unfolds and the enigmatic Hugo gradually reveals himself, their dynamic proves to be much more complicated and less predictable than she expected.
At once hilarious and poignant, brilliantly incisive and terrifically propulsive, Stay Up with Hugo Best is an incredibly timely exploration of sexual politics in the #MeToo age, and the unforgettable story of one young woman’s poignant stumbling into adulthood.
(Taken from Goodreads)
MY THOUGHTS:
June Bloom is a 29 nine year old hopeful. She has been on the writing staff for an aging TV comedy host but today they taped the very last episode. Now the crew are unemployed, Judy decides to raise her spirits by doing an open-mic session at a local bar. It's still early and the venue is practically empty, but someone in the audience appreciates her comedy. It turns out to be the great Hugo Best!
Hugo invites her to his house for the weekend to celebrate Memorial Day. Judy accepts his invitation, after all he is up there with the Gods of comedy. He is a well known womaniser and twice her age but she hopes that something lucrative may come of the weekend - an introduction to someone who may set her on her comedy path or maybe she could be the next Mrs Hugo Best, Anything is possible.
The time spent with Hugo doesn't go quite to plan. She sees him in a new light, one that is far from the TV icon that his publicist has created. Hugo is on a downward spiral and Judy will have to find her own way in this world.
Whilst I personally didn't find this book humorous, the story was an easy read. Unfortunately, the characters were flat and uninteresting. Although I wasn't invested in the story line it gave an insight into the precipitous lifestyle of the industry.
AUTHOR:
Erin Somers' writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House Open Bar, Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, McSweeney's, The Cincinnati Review and many other publications. She holds an MFA from the University of New Hampshire and was a 2016 NYC Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow and a 2016 Millary Colony resident.
Erin lives in New York with her husband and daughter. Stay Up with Hugo Best is her first novel.
You can find Erin Somers:
Twitter: @somerserin
You can buy Stay Up with Hugo Best on Amazon UK: