Synopses & Reviews
Glasgow Phillips published his debut novel
Tuscaloosa at the tender age of twenty-four. The results were disastrous: encouraging reviews, translations, a paperback sale, a film option, and a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford. But over the next two years, as Phillips's second novel unraveled and freelance journalism assignments ended in humiliation, a horrible, secret thought took hold in him: perhaps, just possibly, whatever talent he had was of the kind that would never be more than promise.
Washed up as a "real" writer before he was thirty, Phillips went to Los Angeles and formed a company with his best childhood friend Jason McHugh, independent producer of Cannibal! The Musical and Orgazmo. The Royal Nonesuch is the story of Phillips's rollercoaster ride through the twisted world of underground Hollywood and the funhouse of the Internet during the boom. Phillips builds a hilarious and poignant memoir, in the tradition of Augusten Burroughs and Sean Wilsey, from tales of promise and failure, family and madness, friendship and redemption, fame and infamy, and good old-fashioned hustling. It is a remarkable book; a brilliant portrait of a generation in all its foolish glory.
Review
"Through brief success and persistent failure, Phillips struggles to reconcile himself with the notion that great potential and great expectations guarantee us exactly nothing. Funny, insightful, disturbing, and diverting." Booklist
Review
"Glasgow Phillips is no genius...but he's a very likable fellow, and you'll end up rooting for him even though you know his harebrained ideas will come to nothing." Wall Street Journal
Review
"A darkly comic, self-attacking anti-memoir that in its better moments offers an acid critique of contemporary American culture and its twin obsessions: fame and riches....[W]hen Mr. Phillips hits his stride, he sustains some wonderful comedic riffs." William Grimes, New York Times
Review
"This is the best book I've read about being in your twenties and trying to figure out what to do with your life, and that's not just because I'm in it. Something this funny shouldn't also be this profound; after laughing, crying, and cheering the cast, all I wanted was a bigger part." Matt Stone
Review
"The Royal Nonesuch is very funny, far too real for comfort, and even, finally, life-affirming. To borrow a phrase from Mr. Phillips, reading this book is like getting kicked in the clams with a clown shoe. You double over, not sure whether you're laughing or crying, and then you want to kick the clown back, in the clams. That course of action won't be available to all readers, but I have Mr. Phillips's address, and I'm on my way now to the clown she store." Dave Eggers
Review
"Glasgow Phillips has harnessed vast observational and comedic talents for the purpose of waste, waste, and thrice waste till now! The Royal Nonesuch is both a self-reckoning and a generational one, and Phillips fills this ridiculous, entertaining, crazy-ass morality tale with proof that he's a fancy pants literary type after all. Hooray!" Sean Wilsey
Review
"A mundane account of a pampered kid trying to find himself that offers nothing particularly illuminating, artful or self-reflective." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
The author of Tuscaloosa describes the warm reception of his debut novel and devastating rejection of his second work, a turnabout that prompted his partnership with best friend and independent producer Jason McHugh, with whom he launched an Internet company during the boom of the late 1990s. 35,000 first printing. Original. 35,000 ad/promo.
Synopsis
The Royal Nonesuch is the story of Phillips's rollercoaster ride through the twisted world of underground Hollywood and the funhouse of the Internet during the boom.
About the Author
Glasgow Phillips is a film and television writer in Los Angeles whose credits include South Park and Father of the Pride, as well as catastrophic pilots for Comedy Central and MTV. He is the author of Tuscaloosa: A Novel.