"This brilliant, intoxicating, addictive novel dives deep into the disturbed mind of a woman’s ruthless pursuit of fame."
Razor-sharp and relentlessly gripping, Maud Ventura’s Make Me Famous is an absolute tour de force of contemporary fiction. From the opening lines you know you’re in the company of an outrageously complex and deeply troubled character, and in the hands of a remarkable writer who has an uncanny ability to conjure extreme psychological states with unsettling authenticity.
At 33, super-wealthy, super-successful, super-famous French-American singer Cléo has achieved what she knew was her fate since childhood: “I always believed that what the future had in store for me wasn’t just an existence — it was a destiny”. That said, Cléo’s road to realising her desires was more winding than anticipated. It took tremendous dedication, study and dogged determination to position herself, though her “big break” came as a result of a fortuitous random occurrence.
Having clawed her way to the top, albeit it in sophisticated, generous fashion (narcissistic in the extreme, Cléo’s outward presentation of herself stands in brutal contrast to the callous, coldly-ambitious individual she really is), she’s now alone on a desert island somewhere in the South Pacific, to recharge and write her fourth album.
Here, Cléo also ponders her life from childhood (“Why was I dying to be famous? Was it so that I could feel special, powerful, loved?”), revealing an extreme self-awareness that has no bearing on how she abuses those who work for her (“Everyone talks about imposter syndrome…But I had to battle the opposite”), and a sharp understanding of the nature of fame: “Fame was violent and brutal, like ten shots of tequila, each accompanied by a pinch of salt (the critics) and a slice of lemon (the money)”. On the island, Cléo also reveals the chain of events that led to her coming here, leading to an unexpected, brilliant denouement that leaves one hanging on the subject of hubris.
Like the author’s extraordinary debut, My Husband, Make Me Famous is intense, compulsive and psychologically shrewd — I simply devoured it.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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