We're So Famous

Daisy, Paque and Stella want to be famous. Inspired by their idols, Bananarama, they form a pop group of their own. But Stella heads to LA to become an actress and lusting after bad-boy rocker Bryan Metro. Paque and Daisy, without Stella, are just about ready to call it quits when two friends are mysteriously murdered. They, the last people to see the victims alive, become the prime suspects and cashing in on this sudden notoriety, record their first hit. And the adventure is only just beginning. We're So Famous, Jaime Clarke's debut novel, was first published in 2001.This anniversary edition has been annotated by the author. “Jaime Clarke pulls off a sympathetic act of sustained male imagination: entering the minds of innocent teenage girls dreaming of fame. A glibly surreal world where the only thing wanted is notoriety and all you really desire leads to celebrity and where stardom is the only point of reference. What's new about this novel is how unconsciously casual the characters’ drives are. This lust is as natural to them as being American-it's almost a birthright.” – Bret Easton Ellis “Daisy, Paque, and Stella want. They want to be actresses. They want to be in a band. They want to be models. They want to be famous, damn it. And so…they each tell their story of forming a girl group, moving to LA, and flirting with fame. Clarke doesn’t hate his antiheroines–he just views them as by-products of the culture: glitter-eyed, vacant, and cruel. The satire works, sliding down as silvery and toxic as liquid mercury.” - Entertainment Weekly “Jaime Clarke is a masterful illusionist; in his deft hands, emptiness seems full, teenage pathos appears sassy and charming. We're So Famous is a blithe, highly entertaining indictment of the permanent state of adolescence that trademarks our culture, a made-for-TV world where innocence is hardly a virtue, ambition barely a value system.” – Bob Shacochis “Clarke seems to have created a crafty book of bubble letters to express his anger, sending off a disguised Barbie mail bomb that shows how insipid and money-drenched youth culture can be.” – Village Voice "Darkly and pinkly comic, this is the story of a trio of teenage American girls and their pursuit of the three big Ms of American life: Music, Movies and Murder. An impressive debut by a talented young novelist." – Jonathan Ames "This first novel is plastic fantastic. Daisy, Paque and Stella are talentless teens, obsessed by Bananarama and longing for stardom. They love celebrity and crave the flashbulbs and headlines for themselves. The girls become fantasy wrestlers, make a record, get parts in a going-nowhere film, then try to put on big brave smiles in the empty-hearted world of fame. Sad, sassy and salient." — Elle Magazine "We’re So Famous smartly anticipates a culture re-configured by the quest for fame. The starry-eyed girls at the center of this rock-and-roll fairy tale are the predecessors of today’s selfie-snappers. With biting wit and wry humor, Clarke brilliantly reminds us that we’ve always lived for likes." – Mona Awad (from the reissue edition)