Mesopotamia

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"The immortal shadow of Elvis Presley gyrates wildly through this satiric exploration of America's fascination with tabloid journalism." --Publishers Weekly"Thoroughly entertaining . . . A quirky, hard-edged, slightly absurdist thriller from a writer who definitely bears watching." --Booklist“In his paean to the perplexities of dislocation and discovery—both in bohemian life and in life at large—Nersesian makes us eager to see what happens when the curtain finally rises.”—The New York Times Book Review, on UnlubricatedThings have not been going well for journalist Sandy Bloomgarten. Her job went down the drain and her marriage quickly followed. After a lengthy bender, she awakens one morning to the stark realization that she is flat broke. Nonetheless, she's still a crack reporter and when a tabloid offers her a freelance assignment in Memphis—just a stone's throw from her childhood home in Mesopotamia, Tennessee—she takes it.Though sent there for one story, she winds up tracking down another: someone is killing Elvis impersonators who perform at the annual Sing-the-King festival. The few clues lead her to several unlikely characters: a cheating local minister constantly on the make, a strange band of misfits who only cover Elvis tunes, and a small-town private eye who blew himself up along with his crystal meth lab. As Sandy’s investigation closes, she realizes that she is sitting on what could be the story of the century. The only problem is she can never reveal what she has found.Arthur Nersesian's latest novel is a satiric thriller that takes an amusing view of America's predilection with the superficial over the relevant, and celebrity excitement over real news.Arthur Nersesian is the author of nine novels, including the cult-classic The Fuck-Up (more than 100,000 copies sold), dogrun, and Suicide Casanova. He lives in New York City.From Publishers WeeklyThe immortal shadow of Elvis Presley gyrates wildly through this satiric exploration of America's fascination with tabloid journalism. Washed-up alcoholic reporter Cassandra Bloomgarten gets a career reboot when a sensational "runaway bride" case erupts in the town of Mesopotamia, Tenn., near Memphis. Adopted from a Korean orphanage and raised in the area by a Jewish family, Cassandra may have the local connections to grab the headline, but what happens when she stumbles across two dead Elvis impersonators and a large family left fatherless by a meth lab explosion? The plot thickens-- or zigzags. Nersesian (Suicide Casanova) ambles along, almost getting lost in sitcom territory with the adorable fatherless kids, but he recovers when Cassandra enters an Elvis impersonator contest. A surprise ending won't be much of a shock to anyone who knows Elvis lore, but the loose, amiable read carries you through. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistA bare-bones summary of this novel’s plot might make it sound like more of the same-old, same-old: a down-and-out reporter stumbles onto the story of a lifetime and risks everything she has to solve a series of murders that will blow the lid off a small-town scandal. Ho-hum, right? Wrong. No reader is going to look at this book and think: “Oh, well, another story about a homeless, broke, alcoholic tabloid reporter of Korean descent, a couple of dead Elvis impersonators, and a tax attorney’s missing wife.” The novel, which takes its title from the Tennessee town where the lead character grew up, is thoroughly entertaining, with an offbeat sense of humor and characters with names such as Floyd Loyd and Morton Beaucheete (say the last one fast). The author doesn’t forsake story for funny business, though: there’s a solid mystery here, underneath the goofiness. A quirky, hard-edged, slightly absurdist thriller from a writer who definitely bears watching. --David Pitt