Synopses & Reviews
On a distant island, reality show contestants battle for bragging rights and a slot on next week's episode. They've perfected their dramatic roles and are prepared to do whatever it takes to win. There's the take-no-prisoners Marine sergeant, the gay hairdresser, the ruthless lawyer, the brainy poet. But one player refuses to compete Gloria Hamm, a sullen dental hygienist, voted least likely to win by the shows crew.
The higher-ups are desperate for ratings and sensational twists to trump the plots of seasons past. But the producer haunted by personal tragedies all too real is losing control of the show and its crew. While he obsesses about Gloria, the crew plots mutiny, a contestant dances with insanity, and disease threatens to halt the show completely. When real catastrophes strike, the producer finds it harder and harder to navigate his surreal landscape, where boundaries of the real, imagined, and orchestrated have blurred beyond recognition.
Deus Ex Machina deconstructs our notions of narrative, revealing how tricky it is for any auteur to disappear from his creation. In an age when people will seemingly do anything to be on television, it asks what is the true nature of reality,” and what is its cost?
Review
"[A]bsurd and hilarious....As the camera jumps from character to character, from reality television to real life, Altschul brilliantly blurs fact and fantasy, entertainment and voyeurism, forming a smartly funny and timely montage that challenges the meaning of celebrity." Booklist
Review
"A fabulous (in all senses of the word) novel, Deus Ex Machina manages simultaneously to be philosophical, absurd, kinda dirty, hilarious and, well, real an idea the book itself deftly excavates. Think Shakespeare's The Tempest gone distressingly and wonderfully modern." Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances
Review
"Searing, riveting, shockingly smart, and imbued on every page with a wicked sense of humor, Deus Ex Machina dissects the modern moment like nobody's business. Altschul fearlessly plunges into the heart of darkness reality television and finds the tragicomedy of our time there. Brave, bold, and moving work." Stacey D'Erasmo, author of The Sky Below
Synopsis
"As Altschul] observes in his brilliant new novel . . . there's not much reality in reality television . . . One of the best novels about American culture in years." --NPR
On a distant island, reality show contestants battle for bragging rights and a slot on next week's episode. They've perfected their dramatic roles and are prepared to do whatever it takes to win. There's the take-no-prisoners Marine sergeant, the gay hairdresser, the ruthless lawyer, the brainy poet. But one player refuses to compete--Gloria Hamm, a sullen dental hygienist, voted least likely to win by the show's crew.
The higher-ups are desperate for ratings and sensational twists to trump the plots of seasons past. But the producer--haunted by personal tragedies all too real--is losing control of the show and its crew. While he obsesses about Gloria, the crew plots mutiny, a contestant dances with insanity, and disease threatens to halt the show completely. When real catastrophes strike, the producer finds it harder and harder to navigate his surreal landscape, where boundaries of the real, imagined, and orchestrated have blurred beyond recognition . . .
"An irreverently candid peek inside the entertainment industry . . . Altschul brilliantly blurs fact and fantasy, entertainment and voyeurism, forming a smartly funny and timely montage that challenges the meaning of celebrity." --Booklist
"Searing, riveting, shockingly smart, and imbued on every page with a wicked sense of humor, Deus Ex Machina dissects the modern moment like nobody's business. Altschul fearlessly plunges into the heart of darkness--reality television--and finds the tragicomedy of our time there. Brave, bold, and moving work." --Stacey D'Erasmo, author of Wonderland
About the Author
Andrew Foster Altschul is a Jones Lecturer and former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. His work has appeared in Fence, Swink, StoryQuarterly, One Story, and other journals, as well as the anthologies Best New American Voices 2006 and The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007. He lives in San Francisco.