Impetus, January 2008
202 pages, $16.95

Almost all of the stories in Dave Housley’s collection Ryan Seacrest is Famous share a protagonist who lives in a world that hardly extends beyond the confines of his body.  He is obsessed with his body hair, indulges in drugs and alcohol, and arranges his t-shirts in chronological order.  His self-awareness is based on who he is not: a celebrity.

In the story from which the book takes its title, the protagonist Burns is devastated by the fact that his former high school classmate Ryan Seacrest is famous and he is not, especially because Seacrest was once the geek, the wanna-be John Hughes movie character.  The key to happiness in this world is both having the camera pointed at you and watching those in the camera’s eye.

The brilliance of Housley’s writing resides in its melancholy humor.  Take the book’s first sentence: “I shaved my balls a day after Claire left.”  Housley lures the reader into believing that he is the protagonist by casting him as a writer.  The protagonist’s apathetic nature carries over to his writing: “Maybe I needed somebody to tell me what to do, to get onto the second sentence, to outline the novel of my life.”  

Not surprisingly, the novel of his life cannot exist without pop culture.  On Valentine’s Day, his girlfriend texts him a sappy message and he replies with morose Pink Floyd trivia.  He also comments that “I was no more dark and mysterious than the Spin Doctor’s tie-dye I’d use as a pillow.”    

Amongst the tabloid aura of the stories, Housely manages to squeeze in a story about 9/11.  How can a story about 9/11 exist along with a story about a drunken clown?  Easy.  The protagonist, McGuire, is pessimistic.  There is no room for sentimentalism.  He goes and jams out to AC/DC.  Well, maybe a little Highway to Hell is McGuire’s way of mourning.

“First, my feet start tapping.  Next, I feel the sensation move up my spine, as if my limbs are getting lighter, filling with helium, moving up toward my head until, literally, my frown is turned upside down,” says the clown in one of the stories.  Readers are prone to laughter.  The book is about entertainment.  It is entertainment.  It is as fleeting as the stars that Housley mentions, one day it will be a relic like an old tabloid, found and guarded for its kitsch value.

Dave Housley's work has appeared in Gargoyle, Nerve, Sycamore Review, Yankee Pot Roast, and other places. He is one of the editors of Barrelhouse. Ryan Seacrest is Famous is his first book.

Olena Jennings has translated Ukrainian poetry for publication on the web site poetryinternational.org, publication in Chelsea, and the book-length collection A Chapel for Angels by Oleksiy Koshel, published in Ukraine. She is an MFA student in writing fiction at Columbia University and is working on a novel. To contact Olena e-mail: kgbbarlit@kgbbar.com.