Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2019
272 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
An incredibly timely, terrifically witty and moving debut about a young writers' assistant on a late night comedy show and what transpires when she accepts an invitation from its enigmatic host to spend a long weekend at his mansion in Connecticut.
June Bloom is a broke, cynical twenty-nine-year-old writers' assistant on the late-night comedy show, Stay Up with Hugo Best. Hugo Best is in his sixties, a beloved icon of TV and humor, and a notorious womanizer. After he unexpectedly retires and a party is held for his now unemployed staff, June ends up at a dive bar for an open-mic night and prepares for the sad return to the anonymous comedian lifestyle. What she's not prepared for is a run-in with Hugo at that dive bar. Nor for the invitation that swiftly follows: Hugo asks June to come to his mansion in Greenwich for the long Memorial Day weekend. "No funny business," he insists.
June, in need of a job and money, confident she can handle herself, but secretly harboring the remains of a childhood crush on the charming older comedian and former role model, accepts. The exact terms of the visit are never spelled out, but June is realistic and clear-eyed enough to guess. Even so, as the weekend unfolds and the enigmatic Hugo gradually reveals himself, their dynamic proves to be much more complicated and less predictable than she expected.
At once hilarious and poignant, brilliantly incisive and terrifically propulsive, Stay Up with Hugo Best is an incredibly timely exploration of sexual politics in the #MeToo age, and the unforgettable story of one young woman's poignant stumbling into adulthood.
"Starred Review. An outstanding comedic debut about the deeply unfunny trials of growing up in and out of the spotlight. Somers is a writer to watch." - Kirkus
"Somers sidesteps the predictable path the reader might expect this weekend to take, instead meandering into subtle, surprising territory. Within the strict temporal boundaries she has set herself, Somers depicts two equally lost souls unable to connect on a deep level. This is a winning debut." - Publishers Weekly
"Though not a comedy per se, there are some great laugh-out-loud moments and one-liners, and the pace is steady throughout. Suggest this book to readers who enjoy fiction with a strong sense of misanthropy, and who like their unlikable characters well drawn." - Booklist
"I was honestly surprised to find so many funny one-liners in a novel with the unlikely subject of comedy writing, which is usually a bruising, neurotic enterprise. Erin Somers is a clear-eyed and clever young talent who has mastered the special art of dissection with affection." - Carl Hiaasen, author of Razor Girl
"Our whole culture desperately needs Stay Up with Hugo Best. A book so relevant, and yet so incredibly funny." - Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story and Lake Success
"Funny, sharp, and very fun. A contemporary story that follows a complex set of characters so self-aware that they become even more vibrant on the page." - Weike Wang, author of Chemistry
"Stay Up with Hugo Best is sharp, funny, and moving. By the time I finished, I felt like I'd taken a weekend trip to comedian Hugo Best's mansion myself, taken a dip in his pool, smoked with his son...An extremely winning, relatable, and convincing debut." - Annie Hartnett, author of Rabbit Cake
"An older man, a younger woman, show biz, nakedness - but wait! This is the hilarious version with characters so sympathetic you root for them all, even the guy." - Patricia Marx, New Yorker humorist and author of Him Her Him Again the End of Him
This information about Stay Up with Hugo Best was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Erin Somers's writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House Open Bar, Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, McSweeney's, the Cincinnati Review, and many other publications. She holds an MFA from the University of New Hampshire and was a 2016 NYC Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow and a 2016 Millay Colony resident. She lives in Beacon, New York with her husband and daughter. Stay Up with Hugo Best is her first novel.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
