Synopses & Reviews
A deeply felt homage to classic television from the author of Meritocracy and The Conference of the Birds.
One of the most beloved programs in the history of television, the cop show Northie, has fallen into a ratings slump. Will it be cannibalized by unscrupulous studio executives for one last burst of high scores? Or will it be allowed to conclude its run in dignity?
These are the questions faced by the protagonist Louie, now a television producer, in this third volume of Jeffrey Lewis's "Meritocracy Quartet." Zacky Kurtz, the "King of Television," who is obsessed by the possibility of being the first producer to get "bare ass" on network television, drives the plot toward a conclusion that is as passionate an indictment of our mass culture's coarsening as American literature has recently produced.
Yet Theme Song for an Old Show is about more than dirty business on television. It is an elegiac tribute to the medium, and to the kind of show of which Louie was a proud part, and to Louie’s father, a television producer of an earlier, more naïve era.
PRAISE FOR JEFFREY LEWIS'S MERITOCRACY: A LOVE STORY: "A hauntingly beautiful love story...loaded with powerful characters...written by a writer with consummate skill."
- The Portland Press-Herald
"A sheen of nostalgia glazes this tribute to privileged college kids in the 1960s...a paean to lost youth and hopes."
- Publishers Weekly
"Jeffrey Lewis's wonderful novel Meritocracy [has] historical perspective and reach...A tragic story about what could have been and what wasn't."
- The Jerusalem Post
Review
“Consistently entertaining.”
Review
"Looks at the generation that came of age in the Sixties; the first two titles covered the 1960s and 1970s. . . . His opening chapter, in which his marvelous ear for idiomatic speech is revealed as much through narration as in dialog, hints at the concepts he will explore: the vagaries of love, the odd consorting of dignity and temptation, and, yes, the fragility of creation and existence...That fine ear of Lewis's . . . makes his prose style the book's strength."
Review
“Lewis catches the thrill of proximity to America's Eastern WASP aristocracy to an uncomfortable degree: their studied vagueness, their heartiness, the aloofness that cannot be copied.”
Review
“Shot through with high intelligence and deep feeling, the novel perfectly balances its several tones—lyrical, ironic, and sweet, against the foreboding gravity of the Viet-Nam War. A book that delivers both intellectually and emotionally, Meritocracy is a wise and moving debut.”
Review
"Meritocracy is a dramatic, riveting novel of our times."
Review
“Lives are not seamlessly sewn together, but rather forged by coincidence, necessity, and expectation, a fact that Lewis brilliantly conveys. . . . Lewis’ memories portray a modern, American life.”
Review
“You start with these characters, and through them you tell a social history of the country. . . . I really can't recommend [
The Meritocracy Quartet] highly enough.”
Review
“Pitch-perfect. . . . Quirky, rueful, and wise.”
Review
“Lewis is a master of the subtle interplay of coincidence and character, the light tripping of events that lead to a disaster that seems at once inevitable and yet shocking.”
Review
“A powerful and really striking portrait of the inner and outer lives of the cultural elite of this generation. Lewis is a wonderful writer. . . . As a true novelist, transforming the lived experience to find its meanings, both for himself and for his readers, Lewis becomes an alchemist of the soul, his words then, taking us to places far beyond. . . . A deeply rewarding experience.”
Synopsis
Set against the backdrop of four decades of changing American landscape, the characters in The Meritocracy Quartet sweep in and out of this grand narrative, reflecting the passage of time and the rise of different social and cultural ideals. The four novels are a testament to Americas changing personality - each seeking to define it for themselves. For America is the central character, the panorama against which the characters play out their lives.
Synopsis
Acclaimed writer Jeffrey Lewis is known for his deft portrayals of relatable figures from all walks of life. In
The Meritocracy Quartet, his four interlinking novels
Meritocracy: A Love Story,
The Conference of the Birds,
Theme Song for an Old Show, and
Adam the Kinghave been brought together for the first time into a single volume. Set against the backdrop of the changing American landscape over four decades,
The Meritocracy Quartet is a testament to the countrys evolving personality.
The quartet follows Louie, a Yale graduate from a modest background with a gift for forging connections in high and low places. Beginning in the 1960s, as he documents a going-away party for a fellow Yalie on his way to Vietnam, and continuing through his spiritual encounters with a 1970s group of city misfits, his turn to television writing in the 1980s, and a tragic love story between two of his close friends in the 1990s, Louie chronicles not only his own personal struggleshis silent love for his best friends girl, his delicate relationship with an at-times absent fatherbut also the attitudes, events, and people that marked his generation. From the Vietnam War to George W. Bush, from television trends to the divide between the haves and have-nots, The Meritocracy Quartet is a moving witness to everything America had to offer in the latter portion of the twentieth century.
About the Author
Jeffrey Lewis won two Emmys and many other honors as a writer and producer of Hill Street Blues. His "Meritocracy Quartet" is intended to chart the progress of a generation. The first book of the quartet Meritocracy: A Love Story, won both the Independent Publishers Book Award for General Fiction and the ForeWord Book of the Year Silver Award for Fiction. He lives in Los Angeles and Castine, Maine.
Reading Group Guide
1.
Theme Song for an Old Show appears to be about many things: fathers, the inner workings of television, the eighties, the end of the Cold War and a sea change in American life. Which of these resonated most strongly with you, and how do each of the themes interrelate with the others in the book's structure and impact?
2. Zacky Kurtz is something like a force of nature. But is he a villain? Are there any villains in Theme Song for an Old Show? If the author were to write a short essay on Villains In Everyday Life, what might he say?
3. Louie writes, regarding Melissa, that he seduced himself by saving her. Does that ring true? Have you ever been seduced that way, or known people who have been? Is it a powerful seduction?
4. Melissa complains to Louie that he never allows her to do anything for him. Yet a look at the "facts" suggests otherwise--she was instrumental, among other things, in getting him his job. Why does this appear to be forgotten by the characters?
5. Does Zacky's obsession to get "bare ass" on television represent a sincere urge for freedom of expression or is he simply looking for an angle to reestablish his fortunes? Do you agree or disagree with Zacky that "bare ass" would be an advance for network TV? A triumph for free speech?
6. The narrator throws out the idea that television would be better off with a two show lifetime limit on TV producers, like the two term limit on the presidency, and that this would produce a fresher, less repetitive medium. Does he suggest this sincerely or tongue-in-cheek? What might be said about his suggestion?
7. Louie doesn't speak directly about his own anger when his father left. It seems as a boy he was too busy or desperate, trying to hold things together. We might assume that he was angry and that he would act out that anger somewhere--but where? What factors in his character or experience seem capable of taking the narrator past anger? Would the mix of emotions Louie carries for his father be much different if his father had never left?
8. In the book's title, what does "Old Show" refer to?
9. The book seems to offer insights into why television is as it is. If you could play God, how would you make TV better? If you had a little less power than God, what obstacles does the book suggest you might face?
10. The book is set in the eighties, as the author's second novel was set in the seventies and his first in the sixties. What insights does Theme Song bring to how America changed in the eighties? Do the narrator's assertions about the end of the Cold War leading America towards triumphalism and imperial assumptions ring true? How might Teddy in particular view America's comeuppance in Iraq?
11. Northie appears to be an amalgam of several television shows of the eighties and nineties. If a show like Northie were on today, would you watch it, or would it seem like old hat? Would its vision of America still resonate?
12. What might be said about the style in which Theme Song for an Old Show is written? What does it suggest about the narrator?