Real Happy Family: A Novel, by Caeli Wolfson Widger
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Real Happy Family: A Novel, by Caeli Wolfson Widger
Read and Download Real Happy Family: A Novel, by Caeli Wolfson Widger
Part-time actress, full-time party girl Lorelei Branch isn’t famous yet, but she’s perfected a Hollywood lifestyle full of clubbing, fashion, and the latest juice cleanse. When Robin, her sister-in-law and agent, throws a plum job her way, Lorelei jumps at the chance and auditions to be the new girl on television’s hottest reality show, Flo’s Studio.
Enter Colleen, Lorelei’s pill-popping mother, who wants nothing more than to see her daughter win the fame and glory she never had a chance to pursue herself. But Lorelei’s dream of becoming the next reality star is dashed when she loses the spot on Flo’s Studio to a stunning African woman. In an attempt to defend her daughter against what she calls a rigged contest, Colleen goes ballistic and delivers a racist rant on live television, sparking a national media frenzy. Lorelei flees the limelight, humiliated and broke, with her slacker boyfriend, Don, and heads for Reno, where she begins to self-destruct.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Branch family starts to come apart at the seams. Colleen and her husband, Carl, are quietly drifting away from each other. Darren, Lorelei’s older half-brother, is stuck in Florida working on a contentious film set while his wife, Robin, continues the tedious regimen of fertility drugs meant to help them conceive a child. Desperate to bring the family together again and make things right, Colleen hatches a plan to stage an intervention for Lorelei on the reality show Real Happy Family. Soon the entire Branch family is entangled in a mission to bring the prodigal daughter back into the fold.
Will Lorelei ever forgive Colleen? Will Real Happy Family air its most sensational intervention yet? All roads lead to a seedy Reno hotel room, where a reality TV crew is waiting.
Real Happy Family: A Novel, by Caeli Wolfson Widger - Published on: 2015-09-15
- Formats: Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.75" h x .50" w x 5.25" l,
- Running time: 12 Hours
- Binding: MP3 CD
Real Happy Family: A Novel, by Caeli Wolfson Widger From Booklist Widger skewers Hollywood fame hunters in her sharply funny debut. Young would-be reality-star Lorelei Branch is mortified after her mother, Colleen, has a drunken meltdown on national TV after Lorelei loses a slot on a fashion show to a competitor. Lorelei cuts off all contact with her overzealous stage mom and moves in briefly with her filmmaker half brother and his agent wife before taking off for Reno with her boyfriend to escape the embarrassment of her imploding career. While Lorelei struggles to make ends meet to feed her meth addiction, Colleen, also reliant on drugs, albeit of the prescription variety, struggles to find her own identity in the wake of Lorelei’s desertion. The growing distance between her and her husband isn’t helped by her attraction to a hipster musician she meets at a Hollywood party. When she learns Lorelei is running out of money, Colleen concocts a plan to rescue her daughter by staging a live intervention on another reality show, called Real Happy Family. Widger’s satirical send-up of the industry is a thoroughly enjoyable read. --Kristine Huntley
Review
"A witty debut that puts an entertaining reality TV spin on a perennial topic: mother-daughter dysfunction." —People
"The leading ladies here are the stuff of reality-show legend, but Widger's supporting cast are the ones who are impossible not to watch. One couple blunders through infertility; the other grapples with authenticity and aging. We were pulling for the whole gang — and loved the surprise twists at the end." —Glamour
“This entertaining debut novel unsparingly takes on damaged family ecosystems and the show-business machine. Widger has created a delicate suspension bridge out of her characters’ relationships to one another and the world, and throughout the course of the novel, she steadily, craftily adds weight, making for compulsive reading.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Real Happy Family, Caeli Wolfson Widger’s debut novel, is an authentic story about the artifice of reality television and America’s obsession with it. It’s no small order to find depth in a genre synonymous with vapid depravity, but Widger does — not in the shows themselves, but in the complicated dynamics of a family willing to put their dysfunction on display… Set primarily in Los Angeles, the novel resembles the city itself, where a superficial veneer belies a more complicated truth… Widger’s prose really moves; it’s as if she has her foot on the accelerator the entire time. The novel’s shifting perspective is most fun when Lorelei is at the wheel — reading her is like partying with a speed freak without the awful comedown.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Widger skewers Hollywood fame hunters in her sharply funny debut...a thoroughly enjoyable read.” —Booklist
“Real Happy Family is a cautionary tale about conscienceless reality TV producers, the desperate people who believe reality TV can kickstart a “Hollywood” career, and the lengths that these people will go to “make it,” even at the expense of family, health, and morals.” —Sarah’s Bookshelves
“I loved that this wasn’t a fluffy-take on reality TV or a profile of a “struggling” actress. It feels real and borderline scandalous in a man-behind-the-curtain way, without being sensationalized with the glitz and glamour of typical celeb-fiction reads. To top it all off, it’s smart and witty, in all of the right places.” —BellingFam
“Real Happy Family is a book about Hollywood, but its look at the plight of the “might-have-beens” is a refreshing change of pace from the lifestyles of the rich and famous tomes that dominate the genre. As it turns out, you can be a hot mess without fame and fortune.” —Words for Worms
“Cinematic in its rendering, Real Happy Family glides effortlessly between the lives of characters living the underbelly and upper crust of the Hollywood dream, and the bottom dwellers who feed off the fallout. With the precision of an expert director, Widger leads the reader gawking and cringing past the train wrecks of Colleen and Lorelei, but exposes their hearts, and somehow leaves you cheering for a real happy ending for them all.” —Chandra Hoffman, author of Chosen
“Reminiscent of The Corrections, Caeli Wolfson Widger's Real Happy Family is everything you hope for from a first novel but rarely find: a must-keep-reading-even-though-it's-2 am-plot packed with turbo-flawed yet loveable characters, all capped off with electric prose. I could not put it down. Had me hooked from page one. Bound to be read and talked about from coast to coast. I feel lucky to have been in on the secret before the rest of the country discovers Widger's smart and funny debut.” —Deirdre Shaw, author of Love or Something Like It
“Real Happy Family is the twenty-first century version of Nathanael West's Day of the Locust, a report in 2013 on what has happen to West's Hollywood—and America—during the last seventy-five years. Like West's book, it is both an anatomy of the times and a prophecy of our continuing confusion.” —Jay Martin, author of Nathanael West: The Art of His Life
About the Author Caeli Wolfson Widger lives with her family in Santa Monica, California. Her work has appeared in such publications as the New York Times Magazine, Another Chicago Magazine, and the Madison Review, as well as on NPR and CBS Radio. She earned her MFA from the University of Montana and has taught creative writing at the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, University College London, and Johns Hopkins University. Real Happy Family is her first novel.
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Most helpful customer reviews
72 of 76 people found the following review helpful. Pleasant Surprise By DesertMoon When I first chose this book from the Kindle monthly free choices, I did so only because it seemed more interesting than the other three choices. I wasn't expecting a great read, especially considering the category was "Women's Fiction," I was expecting a cheesy, Oprah bookclub-esque sentimental bore. (No offense to anyone's preferences, my favorite author is Stephen King, so-called "women's fiction" has never been my cup of tea). It was a free read, so I figured what the heck, I can check it out. I am glad I did.The characters are human and while we may not agree with their choices, we can understand their motivations. The world is clearly drawn and accessible. I found it amazing that this was a first novel. Thanks for a pleasant surprise, Amazon Prime!
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful. "In Hollywood, reality show castoffs occupied the lowest caste in the industry." By Amelia Gremelspacher I found this book to be a light, satisfying piece of guilty pleasure. Based on the reality television industry, much of the book is familiar territory. Still the characters have a complexity in their own motivations, and the writing is witty and breezy. In a loose constellation around Lorelei, the proberbial failed reality star, is a blended family of stage mother, step brother and his wife - Lorelei's agent, staunch father, and random Hollywood man slut.The familiar themes of starvation diets, surface values, drugs, and sex are documented. I will say, however, that the drug dependence is thoughtfully portrayed. Al Anon's support for familie of addicts is faithfully written as part of the plot. The cycle and devastation of mehtamphetamine is true to life. I think this is unusual in the genre, and it is a strong positive point in the book.This book is particularly poignant for those of us with reality television habits. I am one of these users, and i am aware of its many tackier points. This allows me to mock myself, and enjoy a good book at the same time.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful. Impressive for a first novel! By ME Very believable story and characters, reminds me of Jodi Picoult Her stories will probably develop intensity as she produces more stories and novels. Love the mix of individual personalities and how she brings forth the depth of her characters at different times in the book. Ending seemed to come abruptly (probably could have added some chapters without drawing out the book)but was still ok. Will look forward to more books from this author.
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