“I had what feels to me like a bizarre, non-linear experience in the movie business. I was never a part of any union, and worked all kinds of non-union assisting jobs to finance my own projects, which had small crews and shot on film in a very guerilla fashion. I didn’t go to film school, so everything I learned about telling stories in that way came from asking a lot of questions of crew members on various sets, watching a lot of movies and interviews, and making things up as I went along.”
― Lauren Rothery, Interview, LitHub
What booksellers are saying about Television
- A #metoo comedy? In the hands of Lauren Rothery, this debut novel can pull off the seemingly impossible, using acute observation (“She made a lot of four-hour friends”) to skewer everything from Hollywood to fame to podcast ads in a sprawling, yet somehow compact weave of texts and forms (conversations, screenplays, letters, etc). “Nobody walks in Los Angeles, but I liked to. It made me feel French.”
― Doron Klemer. Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana | BUY
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A traipse through time and the relationship of a movie star and his best friend/lover/partner. Set in the glamor and depravity of Hollywood, Rothery turns modern feelings of appearances and sex, phones and art, love and grief into a timeless and impressionistic drama. With each unexpected turn and change of form, you’ll relate to each character more intrinsically. I couldn’t put this down!!!
― Ross Ramirez, E. Shaver, Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia | BUY
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Such a fresh, nimble novel, with so much depth. An LA book that brilliantly explores film, art, fame, and the limits of each. It’s a story about uncanny love and the inconvenience of celebrity, about restlessness and contentment and the ways we move between them. Comparisons to Didion will abound, but I think Rothery’s formidable voice is entirely her own.
― Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama | BUY
About Lauren Rothery
Lauren Rothery was born in London and raised in San Diego. She spent her twenties writing and directing short films and music videos between New York and Los Angeles. In 2020, she moved to Europe and began writing fiction. Television is her first novel.
