The Spectators: A Novel

by Jennifer duBois Narrated by Paul Boehmer, Nancy Linari

Overview

A shocking crime triggers a media firestorm for a controversial talk show host in this provocative novel-a story of redemption, a nostalgic portrait of New York City, and a searing indictment of our culture of spectacle.

One of the*The New York Times's*“10 Books to Watch for in April” ¿*“Jennifer duBois is a brilliant writer.”-Karen Russell, author of*Vampires in the Lemon Grove*

Talk show host Matthew Miller has made his fame by shining a spotlight on the most unlikely and bizarre secrets of society, exposing them on live television in front of millions of gawking viewers. However, the man behind The Mattie M Show remains a mystery-both to his enormous audience and to those who work alongside him every day. But when the high school students responsible for a mass shooting are found to be devoted fans, Mattie is thrust into the glare of public scrutiny, seen as the wry, detached herald of a culture going downhill and going way too far. Soon, the secrets of Mattie's past as a brilliant young politician in a crime-ridden New York City begin to push their way to the surface.

In her most daring and multidimensional novel yet, Jennifer duBois vividly portrays* the heyday of gay liberation in the seventies and the grip of the AIDS crisis in the eighties, alongside a backstage view of nineties television in an age of moral panic. DuBois explores an enigmatic man's downfall through the perspectives of two spectators-Cel, Mattie's skeptical publicist, and Semi, the disillusioned lover from his past.*

With wit, heart, and crackling intelligence, The Spectators examines the human capacity for reinvention-and forces us to ask ourselves what we choose to look at, and why.

Praise for The Spectators

With The Spectators, duBois is staking out larger literary territory. The new novel is full of small pleasures that accumulate as proof that this writer knows her stuff. . . . DuBois's mastery of . . . details earns our trust as she expands The Spectators into a billowing meditation on the responsibility of public figures to contribute something worthwhile to the culture. Although her book takes place decades ago, duBois's message has a contemporary urgency as well.”-The New York Times

“Heart-rending and visceral . . . DuBois's language is dexterous, and her pacing impressive. . . .*The Spectators*is a treatise on the media's power and a finely wrought example of intimate pain.”-USA Today

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2019 - AudioFile

Two distinctive settings are perfectly evoked in Nancy Linari and Paul Boehmer's superb narration of this philosophical and affecting novel. The story is told in alternating chapters that are linked by the character Matthew Miller, a lawyer who is the host of a sensational 1990s daytime television talk show. Linari skillfully brings listeners into the behind-the-scenes machinations of defending Matthew's reputation after a fatal high school shooting is carried out by two teenage fans of Matthew's show. In portraying Cel, the show's publicist, and other staff, Linari captures just the right tone for the novel's intense examination of the value of this type of programming. Boehmer creates sympathetic characterizations of several gay men who cross paths with Matthew in 1970s New York City. A rewarding listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

02/18/2019

DuBois (Cartwheel) spans some 30 years of New York City history, moving between the queer gestalt of the 1970s and the television-junkie culture of the 1990s in her solid third novel. The story revolves around Matthew Miller, a sensationalist Jerry Springer–like talk show host who becomes the target of unwelcome media attention following a high school shooting whose perpetrators turn out to be fans of his The Mattie M. Show. Readers follow Mattie’s put-upon publicist Cel as she navigates a treacherous landscape of scandal and recusal. But as the skeletons in Mattie’s closet begin to emerge, readers become privy to the story of Semi Caldwell (who narrates a portion of the book), his secret past lover, when “Mattie” was simply Matthew, an upstanding lawyer and would-be politician in the heady days of Stonewall, before AIDS ravaged the gay community in the 1980s. As the story cuts between eras, the media circus that precipitates Mattie’s fall from grace comes to mirror his abandonment of Semi, who eventually shows up at his TV studio looking for answers. DuBois beautifully handles Semi’s half of the novel, told in first person, but the third-person Cel sections, in which she plays detective to piece together Mattie’s past life, lack the power of Semi’s. Though somewhat uneven, this is nevertheless a powerful novel. Agent: Henry Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

Jennifer duBois is one of a handful of living American novelists who can comprehend both the long arc of history and the minute details that animate it. The Spectators is yet another triumph in an impressive oeuvre: a brave and painfully vivid excavation of the AIDS crisis in New York that, with its fine prose, breathes life back into an era of death.”—Karan Mahajan, author of the National Book Award finalist The Association of Small Bombs

“Elegant, enigmatic, and haunting.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The Spectators is a beautifully written, even aphoristic novel, but its greatest strength is its characterization. . . . Brilliantly conceived and . . . utterly unforgettable.”—Booklist (starred review)

“An enigmatic talk show host is thrust into a spotlight he definitely did not want when a group of teens responsible for a mass shooting claim to be his biggest fans—and the past he wishes would stay hidden begins to come back to the surface. Covering three decades of American culture, including the nineties pop culture wars and the AIDS crisis of the eighties to the liberated seventies, this may be duBois’s most ambitious work yet.”—Lit Hub, “Most Anticipated Books of 2019”

“The Spectators is magnificent, a richly textured epic suffused in heartbreak yet spring-loaded with vitality. Jennifer duBois is among the finest writers of our generation and this is her most accomplished novel.”—Anthony Marra, author of The Tsar of Love and Techno

“Another breathtaking novel from one of our most brilliant writers . . . No one writes about the contradictions of American society and the foibles of the human heart with such incisive wit and sensitivity. The Spectators is a tense and propulsive exploration of how easily we can let our best intentions slip away. As secrets are uncovered, Jennifer duBois reminds us that to truly see, without apology or artifice, is itself an act of compassion. This novel pulses with intelligence and heart.”—Kirstin Valdez Quade, author of Night at the Fiestas

“The Spectators is Jennifer duBois’s ambitious and assured novel that strives to answer the question: What tragedies deserve to be told? Each sentence is more beautiful than the next, every line of dialogue sharper and funnier. I savored it all.”—Mandy Berman, author of Perennials

“A masterpiece, The Spectators is a thrilling high-wire act. Combining a symphonic structure with unflinching psychological insight, this gorgeous novel explores the ways in which we betray and redeem one another—how we tell each other’s stories and, in doing so, discover our own. Jennifer duBois is one of this generation’s singular talents. ”—Mary Helen Specht, author of Migratory Animals

“Every page is so brilliant, and every character so irreverent, that you’ll hardly realize what you have in your hands is a passionate love story unfolding against the backdrop of a lost world. As you weave among ghosts, the witticisms turn into laments, then prayers, and through it all the writing is so damn good.”—Deb Olin Unferth, author of Wait Till You See Me Dance

“This contemporary tragedy, shot through with comic energy and a quiet, radical hope, has arrived at precisely the right moment. Dubois is a brilliant writer, and I could read her sentences forever.”—Karen Russell, author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove

“The Spectators is a jarring reminder of a not-long-ago paradigm in which we could be shocked and shamed by daytime talk shows and mass shootings, when America still put its collective cultural faith in art and entertainment at the seeming genesis of it all: New York City. Only a writer with the easy, exquisite intellect of Jennifer duBois could render the slow debasement of individuals and the groups they comprise with such authenticity and compassion, and make the experience of reading it all such a pleasure. I was awed and humbled by every page.”—Xhenet Aliu, author of Brass

“Jennifer duBois is a wonderful writer—funny and humane, generous and wise—and her newest novel, The Spectators, is a searing and moving examination of our culture’s obsession with celebrity and the public persona. With penetrating wit and psychological acuity, duBois has created one of the most complicated and memorable characters I’ve read in years. . . . A brilliant and propulsive book—I loved it.”—Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans

MAY 2019 - AudioFile

Two distinctive settings are perfectly evoked in Nancy Linari and Paul Boehmer's superb narration of this philosophical and affecting novel. The story is told in alternating chapters that are linked by the character Matthew Miller, a lawyer who is the host of a sensational 1990s daytime television talk show. Linari skillfully brings listeners into the behind-the-scenes machinations of defending Matthew's reputation after a fatal high school shooting is carried out by two teenage fans of Matthew's show. In portraying Cel, the show's publicist, and other staff, Linari captures just the right tone for the novel's intense examination of the value of this type of programming. Boehmer creates sympathetic characterizations of several gay men who cross paths with Matthew in 1970s New York City. A rewarding listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169212761
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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