In the summer of 2003, mere weeks before his fortieth birthday, Lunt Moreland checks in at Hollywood's infamous Hotel Ofotert for the upcoming "Sharonfest," a gathering of his fellow "Sharonophiles"--obsessive, lifelong devotees of the 1960s movie starlet and Charles Manson murder victim, Sharon Tate.
Soon after arriving at the Hotel Ofotert, Lunt begins to receive ominous packages and menacing phone calls. Is his rival Glenn Mandrake, who is intent on blocking the publication of a Tate-centered book Lunt is trying to publish, responsible for these? Could it be his longtime confidante, the physically handicapped Sharonophile named Branson? Or perhaps the ill-intentioned sender is the quirky and beautiful green-haired young hipster whom Lunt has fallen for--and who also happens to be a lifelong member of Charles Mansons's still-existing cult, The Family--to blame? All that's certain is that Lunt's growing dependence on an Mucaquell, a powerful opiate-based cough syrup is not helping him get to the bottom things. Especially once he runs out...
Comic, wistful, and perverse, Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate tackles the nature of reality and the dehumanizing elements of fame and celebrity.
In the summer of 2003, mere weeks before his fortieth birthday, Lunt Moreland checks in at Hollywood's infamous Hotel Ofotert for the upcoming "Sharonfest," a gathering of his fellow "Sharonophiles"--obsessive, lifelong devotees of the 1960s movie starlet and Charles Manson murder victim, Sharon Tate.
Soon after arriving at the Hotel Ofotert, Lunt begins to receive ominous packages and menacing phone calls. Is his rival Glenn Mandrake, who is intent on blocking the publication of a Tate-centered book Lunt is trying to publish, responsible for these? Could it be his longtime confidante, the physically handicapped Sharonophile named Branson? Or perhaps the ill-intentioned sender is the quirky and beautiful green-haired young hipster whom Lunt has fallen for--and who also happens to be a lifelong member of Charles Mansons's still-existing cult, The Family--to blame? All that's certain is that Lunt's growing dependence on an Mucaquell, a powerful opiate-based cough syrup is not helping him get to the bottom things. Especially once he runs out...
Comic, wistful, and perverse, Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate tackles the nature of reality and the dehumanizing elements of fame and celebrity.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Gary Lippman received a law degree from Northwestern University and has worked with New York's Innocence Project. Lippman's play Paradox Lost ran off Broadway for a month in 2001 and his writing has been published in The New York Times, The Paris Review, VICE, Fodors, and more. Having lived in Illinois, Florida, California, and France, Lippman can now be found in what used to be called "Fun City" with his imaginary French bulldog, his very real Hungarian wife, and a whenever-he's-inclined-to-visit adult son.
"A writer-protagonist's obsessive efforts to unravel the riddle
wrapped inside the mystery hidden within the enigma of his Sharon
Tate obsession unfolds into a darkly comic social critique of our
Charles Manson mythologizing. In the ultimate explosion of genres,
Gary Lippman's skillful psychological thriller stirs one part of
James "Demon Dog" Ellroy with a jigger of David Sedaris's grave
hilarity for this raucuous tale, a tour de force of radiant nesting
dolls and cultural madness."
--Laura Albert, international bestselling author of JT Leroy's
Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things "Gary Lippman has
invented a cavalcade of completely over-the-top characters. The
story crackles with originality and begs to be made into a movie.
(Are you out there, Wes Anderson?) At turns funny, tragic, and
heart-stopping, this novel proves that Mr. Lippman has jointed the
ranks of the master story-tellers..."
--Simon Kirke, musician and songwriter for Bad Company and Free
"Los Angeles. A beautifully hideous sprawl. Stretching like an
ever-expanding virus of sick contagion under the relentless sun as
hot Devil Winds blow down from the mountain scorching the
landscape. The promise of an endless summer shattered by gunshots
and sirens, helicopters and hospital beds. Hollywood. Where the
California Dream is a waking nightmare of dead-end streets ripe
with bloated corpses where bad Beat poets, dope-sick singers,
cracked actors and petty criminals are all praying to a burned-out
star on the sidewalk. All betting on a chance encounter, which
would flip the script in the lousy late-night made-for-TV movie of
their wasted lives. Gary Lippman captures this horrendous nightmare
with a twisted humor, where the horror rings all-too-true."
--Lydia Lunch, confrontational multimedia performance artist "In
this wildly inventive, highly addictive story, Lippman walks a
tightrope between horror and hilarity. Set The Controls For The
Heart Of Sharon Tate is an irreverent and introspective thrill ride
that probes the heart of the intersection of fame and compulsion,
desire and death, idols and monsters. Just as the most bizarre
dreams can often expose our truest selves, Lippman's surreal tale
shines a light into the darkest corners of our common
humanity."
--Jillian Lauren, New York Times Bestselling author of Some Girls
"Terry Southern has passed the torch into the hands of Gary
Lippman. With a finger on the pulse of America's obsession with
obsession itself, Lippman works in the more lurid and macabre
back-alleys of pop culture worship and celebrity idolization. This
tale is sexy, scary, twisted and hilarious...sometimes all in the
same sentence. It's everything a novel should be. I devoured it.
Twice!"
--Michael Imperioli, author of The Perfume Burned His Eyes and
actor on The Sopranos
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