To write an autobiographical novel entails a great deal of risk. Because people know you are writing about your own life--fictionalized--inevitably bringing emotional turmoil into the lives of those people. And perhaps that is why James Smale can't bring his novel to a satisfying end--he is reluctant to go the distance because of the high costs.
Smale's editor believes in him, in his novel, and in the story he has yet to tell. He can't tell it yet, because he hasn't lived it. And his editor presses him to do the work.
Oh, Smale's editor at Doubleday is Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis. It makes things very complicated. Does he call her Mrs. Onassis? Jackie? Are they friends or coworkers or is she his boss or does she work for him? Everyone wants a part of her, all his friends are more interested in the minutia of her life than they are in his book.
As Smale agonizes over his manuscript and his relationship with his mother and the father who left her "because of" him, his relationship with his beloved Daniel comes under strain. Do they have a love for all time?
Everything Smale believed he knew comes crashing down at a family Thanksgiving gathering when his mother shares a secret.
The beginning of The Editor revolves around Smale's coming to grips with his discovery and the shock of being discovered by one of the most famous women in the world. As a mother, she is deeply interested in his book. As an editor, she pushes him into uncomfortable territory. And the novel takes a turn from the comic into the universal theme of a child trying to process their childhood and relationships with parents. The search for the mother, in Smale's case, becomes a discovery of the father.
Rowley's novel has already been signed to be a movie!
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
“Rowley deliberately mines the sentiment of the mother/son bond, but skillfully saves it from sentimentality; this is a winning dissection of family, forgiveness, and fame.”— PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)
The Editor
by Steven Rowley
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Pub Date 02 Apr 2019
ISBN: 9780525537960
PRICE: $27.00 (USD)
