-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
by Michael Tolkin
The Player was a brilliant satire of Hollywood that has become a cult classic. Now, it's fifteen years later and film executive Griffin Mill is back. As the novel opens, Griffin, down to his last 6 million dollars, is broke. He has one last desperate plan, to quit the studio and convince Phil Ginsberg, an almost billionaire, to become his partner. Ginsberg takes the bait when Griffin donates $750,000 to the Coldwater Academy, the elite private high school that Ginsberg's son attends. He sees the potential in Griffin, a master of stories, and hires him to write one starring his money. It looks like Griffin's dream is on track, but he soon discovers that he has taken on more than he could have imagined. While Griffin's ideas barely percolate, his personal life is falling apart. His second marriage is broken, and he's beginning to think he shouldn't have divorced his first wife. And if that's not enough, Griffin commits another murder when his plan nearly collapses.
"Starred review. Mill's antiheroic effort to wring love and meaning from a loveless and meaningless life is heartfelt and cynical, resulting in a powerful dark comedy that transcends the shopworn genre of Hollywood satire." - PW.
"Whenever its moribund souls aren't soliloquizing at ear-splitting volume and exhausting length, this is vivid, nasty fun." - Kirkus.
This information about Return of the Player 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.
If you liked Return of the Player, try these:
by Adam Ross
Published 2026
Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show The Nuclear Family and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep—along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach—he's teetering on the edge of collapse.
by Stephen Fishbach
Published 2026
A propulsive debut novel following a has-been reality TV star and a disgraced producer who get one last shot at redemption on a show set on a remote island, only to discover that the plot twists are beyond what they ever imagined.
by David Joy
Published 2023
Acclaimed author and "remarkably gifted storyteller" (the Charlotte Observer) David Joy returns with a fierce and tender tale of a father, an addict, a lawman, and the explosive events that come to unite them.
The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
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.
