Humans do the strangest things.
It's a good thing that there are supremely talented satirists like Simon Plaster around to skewer society's conventions and foibles.
When we are too serious and full of ourselves to see the humorous side of every situation, we have...
um...
let the terrorists win.
Or, at the very least, we have let the pompous stuffed shirts of society win.
Just because they may be the arbiters of taste, and the dictators of what people consider to be fashionable, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be poked fun of, as Simon Plaster does with scathing and witty insights into the inhabitants of the microcosm of the world that is Chelmsford Heights, Oklahoma, in his latest LOL novel, Lifestyle: A Tale of Upscale Suburbia and a Girl.
Like a surgeon exposing a beating heart to operate on it, Simon Plaster exposes the hypocrisy, false pride, and pomposity of the affluent and snobby residents of the town.
He does it as he has in his first two novels, Sumbitch: A Tale of Bigtime College Football and SNAFU: A Tale of Presidential Election and a Girl, through the eyes of the stalwart small-town newspaper reporter, Henryetta P.
Hebert.
Named after the town of Henryetta, Oklahoma, the "girl" of the title is as ambitious in her own way as any bigger-name reporter for a newspaper like the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune.
Having applied for a job working at the Weekly Weekender, in Chelmsford Heights, which she believes is a step up from her previous job as a reporter for the Henryetta newspaper, the Henryetta Weekly Herald, she finds herself instead back at work for her former boss, Mr.
Harold.
The newspaper's office is located in the Chelmsford Heights Mall.
She is assigned the duty of working on a Special 50th Anniversary edition of the local Weekly Weekender, but things get complicated when someone steals the newspaper's historical archives.
Henryetta discovers that the townspeople of Chelmsford Heights have their own secret agendas, their own petty desires, and that they are not really any different from the inhabitants of the town she left of Henryetta.
They are, though, even less interested in the real news of their state or the world, and are focused primarily on getting their photos in the newspapers, getting awards, and having their social functions reported in a favorable light.
There is a steamy underbelly to the life of the affluent, though.
There are...
things...
about their town and the people in it that the uppercrust would rather be completely left out of the newspaper.
For instance, a lawyer has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Chief of Police wrongfully arrested his client for shoplifting from the Chelmsford Heights Mall.
If he is successful in court, liability could amount to tens of millions of dollars.
Also, a former embittered resident of Chelmsford Heights, the ex-Mrs.
Chester Grossman, who now lives in the adjoining town of Fiddler's Green, and who owns a run-down cemetery there, does her best to make the life and lifestyle of Chelmsford Heightsters difficult by making it difficult for them to reclaim the remains of their dearly departed who are buried in the cemetery.
There's more than one way to turn a cemetery into a money-making proposition, like holding the remains of deceased loved ones for ransom.
How can an aspiring career woman like Henryetta survive and even thrive living in a town like Chelmsford Heights and being required to report on such trivial social news items like "Perfect Kid of the Weekend," "Greenest Lawn," and "Cutest Couple"? Run out and get yourself a copy of the sensational Satirical novel, Lifestyle: A Tale of Upscale Suburbia and a Girl by Simon Plaster to find out!
It's a good thing that there are supremely talented satirists like Simon Plaster around to skewer society's conventions and foibles.
When we are too serious and full of ourselves to see the humorous side of every situation, we have...
um...
let the terrorists win.
Or, at the very least, we have let the pompous stuffed shirts of society win.
Just because they may be the arbiters of taste, and the dictators of what people consider to be fashionable, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be poked fun of, as Simon Plaster does with scathing and witty insights into the inhabitants of the microcosm of the world that is Chelmsford Heights, Oklahoma, in his latest LOL novel, Lifestyle: A Tale of Upscale Suburbia and a Girl.
Like a surgeon exposing a beating heart to operate on it, Simon Plaster exposes the hypocrisy, false pride, and pomposity of the affluent and snobby residents of the town.
He does it as he has in his first two novels, Sumbitch: A Tale of Bigtime College Football and SNAFU: A Tale of Presidential Election and a Girl, through the eyes of the stalwart small-town newspaper reporter, Henryetta P.
Hebert.
Named after the town of Henryetta, Oklahoma, the "girl" of the title is as ambitious in her own way as any bigger-name reporter for a newspaper like the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune.
Having applied for a job working at the Weekly Weekender, in Chelmsford Heights, which she believes is a step up from her previous job as a reporter for the Henryetta newspaper, the Henryetta Weekly Herald, she finds herself instead back at work for her former boss, Mr.
Harold.
The newspaper's office is located in the Chelmsford Heights Mall.
She is assigned the duty of working on a Special 50th Anniversary edition of the local Weekly Weekender, but things get complicated when someone steals the newspaper's historical archives.
Henryetta discovers that the townspeople of Chelmsford Heights have their own secret agendas, their own petty desires, and that they are not really any different from the inhabitants of the town she left of Henryetta.
They are, though, even less interested in the real news of their state or the world, and are focused primarily on getting their photos in the newspapers, getting awards, and having their social functions reported in a favorable light.
There is a steamy underbelly to the life of the affluent, though.
There are...
things...
about their town and the people in it that the uppercrust would rather be completely left out of the newspaper.
For instance, a lawyer has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Chief of Police wrongfully arrested his client for shoplifting from the Chelmsford Heights Mall.
If he is successful in court, liability could amount to tens of millions of dollars.
Also, a former embittered resident of Chelmsford Heights, the ex-Mrs.
Chester Grossman, who now lives in the adjoining town of Fiddler's Green, and who owns a run-down cemetery there, does her best to make the life and lifestyle of Chelmsford Heightsters difficult by making it difficult for them to reclaim the remains of their dearly departed who are buried in the cemetery.
There's more than one way to turn a cemetery into a money-making proposition, like holding the remains of deceased loved ones for ransom.
How can an aspiring career woman like Henryetta survive and even thrive living in a town like Chelmsford Heights and being required to report on such trivial social news items like "Perfect Kid of the Weekend," "Greenest Lawn," and "Cutest Couple"? Run out and get yourself a copy of the sensational Satirical novel, Lifestyle: A Tale of Upscale Suburbia and a Girl by Simon Plaster to find out!