We Play Ourselves
A Novel
-
-
4.8 • 10 Ratings
-
-
- $5.99
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
After a humiliating scandal, a young writer flees to the West Coast, where she is drawn into the morally ambiguous orbit of a charismatic filmmaker and the teenage girls who are her next subjects.
FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD • ONE OF BUZZFEED’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “A blistering story about the costs of creating art.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as “a fierce new voice” and “queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea.” But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape—and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline’s next semidocumentary movie, which follows the girls’ clandestine activity: a Fight Club inspired by the violent classic.
As Cass is drawn into the film’s orbit, she is awed by Caroline’s ambition and confidence. But over time, she becomes troubled by how deeply Caroline is manipulating the teens in the name of art—especially as the consequences become increasingly disturbing. With her past proving hard to shake and her future one she’s no longer sure she wants, Cass is forced to reckon with her own ambitions and confront what she has come to believe about the steep price of success.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A playwright's public shame and jealousy traps her in self-doubt in this mordant debut novel from Silverman (after the collection The Island Dwellers). Thirty-three-year-old playwright Cass flees New York after an embarrassing public meltdown in which she deliberately poked her nemesis, Yale senior and hot new playwright Tara-Jean Slater, in the eye. Unlike Tara-Jean's work, Cass's first play is a mess. A bad review compounds her sense of failure after having an affair with her married lead actor and having her advances rebuffed by the older French director, who tells her, "There are many kinds of intimacy, it's so easy to confuse them all." In Los Angeles, she rooms with a friend who faces an impending breakup with his Australian boyfriend, who still hasn't come out after a decade together. Cass meets charismatic filmmaker Caroline, who recruits Cass to work on a Fight Club inspired cinema verit project starring teenage girls. After one of the girls goes missing, Cass learns Caroline is not only manipulative but deceitful. This, plus an illuminating encounter with Tara-Jean, prompts some soul searching. While the ending feels a bit unresolved, Cass's dark humor and acts of self-sabotage keep the reader engaged. Silverman's genuine, stirring novel speaks volumes about the lure and fickleness of fame.
Customer Reviews
Love
I love this book so much!
It is the book I needed to read at this exact moment.
Dark but funny
The story was so well written with a dry and dark humor skillfully embedded throughout. It addresses the heavy reality that success is relative and a never ending quest. On that quest, one must deal with, and come to terms with, the emotional backlash of their own actions.
I typically read books where I don’t have to think. This was not that book, but in the best way possible. It was outside of my comfort zone but such a pleasant surprise. So incredibly funny and thoughtful.