"Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin has written a novel where he reveals aspects of his life as a child star and the troubled path he has followed for the past 25 years. His new auto-biographical novel "Junior" has the main character, Junior, blaming most if not all of his problems on his father, a failed actor who wants his son to be the star he never was.
Mac describes the novel's father as both "a loving man who looked out for the best interest of his family" and "a cold-blooded bastard who ripped my family apart from the inside out."
Yikes! Mac goes on to tell about the aftermath of a weekend party the teenage Junior throws for his friends in a suite at a fancy hotel where the room gets a bit messy: "My father woke me up by dragging me out of bed by my face. But my father didn't beat me in front of my friends, because that would have been embarrassing. Instead he lined all of my friends up at the front door, pulled out his wallet, and one by one he handed each of them a fresh twenty-dollar bill and told them never to speak to me again. And the kicker was they took it."
The Junior describes his abusive father this way: "My father liked to hit things. His favorite thing to hit was my mother. He hurt her a lot." Not great prose but Mac fans will find this tale extremely interesting.
In another story from the book, Junior talks about being 13 and becoming frightened by cameramen at a premiere. "I did what my gut was telling me to do: I ran." Then, after jeers from the photographers, the kid's dad forced him back on the red carpet to pose for more pictures. "The mob of photographers didn't cheer when I returned, of course. They just yelled, 'Do that chicken dance, monkey boy!' and I obliged, knowing that they were killing any speck of joy I used to have for my work."
And from the book's own description:
In a dizzying kaleidoscope of words and images, actor and writer Macauley Culkin takes readers on a twisted tour to the darkest corners of his fertile imagination. Part memoir, part rant, part comedic tour de force, Junior is full of the hard-won wisdom of Culkin's quest to come to terms with the awesome pressures of childhood mega-stardom and family dysfunction. He understands that "having fun and being happy are two totally different things," yet at the same time he warns, "the end of the world is coming -- and I'm going to have unfinished business." Searingly honest and brain-teasingly inventive, Junior is breathtaking proof that Culkin has found his own utterly original voice.
"Junior," from Miramax Books, will be published in March.
[source: new york daily news]
Comments
Macaulay Culkin's Debut Novel: The First Review
"With 'Junior,' an audaciously empty mishmash of poems, letters, comics, etc., former child star Culkin (of 'Home Alone' fame) has managed to lower the already low bar set for celebrity fiction. Filled with jokes lacking wit, introspection devoid of insight, poetry made of nothing, this is a work frustratingly short on substance. Makes Ethan Hawke read like Philip Roth."
Full review, to be published in the Feb. 15 issue of Kirkus Reviews:
http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/author/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001881252
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Chuck Shelton
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Posted by: Chuck | January 19, 2006 12:33 AM
hey! i think macaulay culkins book is going to be really good and i know i'm going to read it when i get it cause once i start reading a book i can't put it down. so, i will be done his book in three to four weeks. i love your work you do macaulay. keep up the good work.
Posted by: Jess | February 2, 2006 08:21 PM