Synopses & Reviews
An intimate portrait of a marriage intertwined with a meditation on reality TV that reveals surprising connections and the meaning of an authentic life.
In Lucas Mann’s trademark vein — fiercely intelligent, self-deprecating, brilliantly observed, idiosyncratic, personal, funny, and infuriating — Captive Audience is an appreciation of reality television wrapped inside a love letter to his wife, with whom he shares the guilty pleasure of watching “real” people bare their souls in search of celebrity. Captive Audience resides at the intersections of popular culture with the personal, the exhibitionist impulse with the schadenfreude of the vicarious, and in confronting some of our most suspect impulses achieves a heightened sense of what it means to live an authentic life and what it means to love a person.
Review
“If Mann doesn’t quite elevate reality TV to an art form — and that’s unlikely his intention — he makes a persuasive argument for readers to sit up and take notice. The cultural implications are perhaps more potent than we’d like to believe. An immensely captivating consideration of reality TV and a moving reflection on marriage.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred)
Review
“What other book goes so boldly into the insatiable need to be seen? Who else is as tough on his own perceptions? I already knew Lucas Mann was a wonder of a writer, but Captive Audience is his best book yet: a tender, humane, comic, brainy, unsettling achievement.” Paul Lisicky, author of The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship
Review
“I’m an ardent admirer of Lucas Mann’s work. Captive Audience shows us how to do ‘media criticism’ the right way or rather the wrong way, the more electric and exciting way: The target is never out there; it’s in here. A galvanizing, illuminating, and nervy book.” David Shields, author of Other People and Reality Hunger
Review
“Exuberantly intelligent and thoughtfully romantic, Captive Audience is an ode to two of America’s favorite pastimes: falling in love, and watching ourselves on TV. With uncommon insight and humor, Lucas Mann weaves a textile of analysis, feeling, and good old-fashioned voyeurism that not only captivates but entertains.” Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine
About the Author
Lucas Mann was born in New York City and received his MFA from the University of Iowa, where he was the Provost’s Visiting Writer in Nonfiction. His essays and stories have appeared in or are forthcoming from Wigleaf, Barrelhouse, New South, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, and The Kenyon Review. He teaches writing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Lucas Mann on PowellsBooks.Blog
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