Overview

A TODAY SHOW SPRING PICK ""Sweet, sexy, sad, articulate, and funny."" - Vogue ""As much heart, humor, and gritty realness as can fit between two covers."" - People ""A funny and heartfelt tale of one woman grappling with grief, love and how to move forward.” - New York Times From the New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things, a sparkling and funny new novel of entertainment, ambition, art, and love. Cherry Hendricks might be down on her luck, but she can write the book on what makes something funny: she’s a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between her clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she’s always hustling. Not to mention balancing her judgmental mother, her messy love life, and her equally messy community of fellow performers. Things start looking up when Cherry meets Margot the Magnificent—a much older lesbian magician—who seems to have worked out the lines between art, business, and life, and has a slick, successful career to prove it. With Margot’s mentorship and industry connections, Cherry is sure to take her art to the next level. Plus, Margot is sexy as hell. It’s not long before Cherry must decide how much she’s willing to risk for Margot and for her own explosive new act—and what kind of clown she wants to be under her suit. Equal parts bravado, tenderness, and humor, and bursting with misfits, magicians, musicians, and mimes, Stop Me If You've Heard This One is a masterpiece of comedic fiction that asks big questions about art and performance, friendship and community, and the importance of timing in jokes and in life.

Full Product Details

9780593719794

Table of Contents

Reviews

""A funny and heartfelt tale of one woman grappling with grief, love and how to move forward.” –The New York Times “Wild, luxurious and absurd…Arnett’s craft and her comedy are on full and feral display.” - Washington Post ""Central Florida [is] a place where Arnett’s writerly claim is now as firm as Flannery O’Connor’s was to rural Georgia"" - Vulture ""Sweet, sexy, sad, articulate, and funny."" –Vogue ""As much heart, humor, and gritty realness as can fit between two covers."" - People “It is clear Arnett...loves Cherry very much, and by the end of Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One, readers will love Cherry too.” - The New York Times Book Review “For fans of Celia Laskey (for queer reasons) and Lauren Groff (for Florida reasons), Arnett’s latest will have you hooked from its hilariously disastrous opening pages.” - PureWow “Arnett paints an irresistible portrait of the artist as a clown…Cherry’s story makes a powerful case for pursuing one’s art authentically and fearlessly. It’s a riot.” –Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW ""Arnett grounds the characters and relationships beautifully through her signature style of humor and heart...A funny and tender novel about life's best and worst punchlines."" –Kirkus Reviews ""Arnett [has] found the sweet spot between heartbreak and humor."" - Minnesota Star-Tribune ""A zany and emotionally resonant book with plenty of tricks up its sleeve."" –Book Riot ""A tender and funny novel about getting unstuck in making art and living life."" –Booklist “Serves up equal doses of humor and emotion…Arnett excels at striking a pitch-perfect tone of dark humor, delighting in irreverent jokes and descriptions while always probing at something deeper, something closer to the heart…. A darkly comedic tale about ambition, unexpected forms of art, and queer desire, Stop Me If You've Heard This One is another brutally funny and surprisingly emotional novel from Kristen Arnett.” -Shelf Awareness “[Kristen Arnett] really outdid herself this time, and Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One is a certified banger. Can't wait to force it into the hands of everyone I ever meet.” –Samantha Irby, New York Times bestselling author of Quietly Hostile “Is there any more brilliant and singular talent than Kristen Arnett? I cried laughing and ached at the zeniths of tenderness its tragicomic brilliance achieves. This may be the best book I’ve ever read.” –Alissa Nutting, author of Tampa “Brilliant on the relationship between comedy and suffering, and on the bravado and vulnerability of performance…A dazzling, sexy, and hilarious triumph.” – Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel “One of the funniest books I’ve ever read.” – Jami Attenberg, author of A Reason to See You Again

Author Information

Kristen Arnett is the author of the novel With Teeth, which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction, and the New York Times bestselling novel Mostly Dead Things, which was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, The Cut, Oprah Magazine, and elsewhere. She lives in Orlando, Florida.

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