A few years ago, I overlooked the novels Aubrey McKee and The Education of Aubrey McKee when they were sent to me by the publisher. Silver Lake, a new book in the series, came out last month. I requested an advanced review copy because of an instinctive tug telling me to read it. Forecasts were promising. The novel is a standalone, as are the others; no need to pre-read. Now, however, I’m eager to read the first two. Odd how that happens, how we come to our books.
Silver Lake opens with comedy writer Aubrey McKee in a Toronto café contemplating his failure as an adult while reading an email from his friend Calvin Dover. Calvin’s telling Aubrey to buck up. They once worked together on a sketch comedy series.
You can’t stay in Canada. You just can’t. Options dry up. So—trumpet sounds—come to LA? Take the plunge!
But then, Jane Yu, a friend from Aubrey’s hometown in Nova Scotia, now a production coordinator on low-budget movies, walks into the café. Her production assistant is MIA. She’s fed up with his inconsistent attendance and offers Aubrey his job. Aubrey’s life-changes happen all-of-a-sudden in the plot, and this one catapults him into the spastic energy of Twinkle Pictures run by executive producer Twinkle Zitner, a former lawyer turned king of B-movies.
I was loaned out to everybody. If transport needed a picture vehicle cleaned, I cleaned a picture vehicle. If the grips needed another twenty-by-twenty black from Panavision, I got another twenty-by-twenty black from Panavision. … And if Jane needed a way to account for the four thousand dollars spent on a New York actor’s cocaine habit, I sifted through the trash cans outside the Summerhill [Liquor Control Board of Ontario] until I found enough liquor receipts to cover it.
Aubrey impresses Twinkle, who offers him the job to be his assistant, but another email from Calvin arrives responding to a packet of scenes, sketches, and jokes Aubrey sent him: Good news! Producers loved your packet. Aubrey moves to Los Angeles to join Calvin as a writer on the talk show Weeknights with Pete Peters. Scenes and dialogues in the writers’ room preparing Mr. Peters monologues are nimble, witty, and delightfully deadpan. They’re among the best of the novel’s four sections that make up this spirited story.
I can’t praise Aubrey’s character enough. He’s one of those irresistible narrators who energizes and shines on the page with his self-deprecating, comical, wistful personality. He’s like a cool beach breeze blowing across the film industry’s high-strung, ego-infused, competitive hot sand. The novel sings with his inner reflections, often poignant, sometimes anguished, and dependably real, especially in his romantic relationship with the actor Poppy Price.
Aubrey remembers her from the days she worked as a server at a downtown Toronto restaurant he frequented. He also remembers the likeness of her face on his sister’s Nancy Drew lunchbox. Poppy’s risen from minor teen-age acting appearances to Hollywood recognition. She’s 20 months away from becoming “one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.” Her epic meltdowns amplify personal Hollywood drama and marvelously blend hysteria with rational industry wisdom, often imparted to Aubrey by his surround of writers and producers.
When Poppy and Aubrey become a couple, he’s a script coordinator for a sci-fi TV show called Starship Charlie. His big break comes when given the chance to write the script for one of the show’s episodes. That episode becomes the highest-rated of the season. This opens doors for Aubrey, who next directs his own feature film: 16 speaking parts, 33 locations, and a cost of 1.4 million dollars. It’s the final life-change in this wonderful story, a hard-earned realization that reaps rewards.
Pinned to a board on my desk are words I wrote down long ago, without the source of where they came from: “Nothing is as important as a likeable narrator whose take on life fascinates you.” That’s Aubrey McKee. He’s a rare human in the Hollywood world of “people trying to become powerful people while pretending to be nice people.” Silver Lake is a glittering achievement.
The Longest Chapter 