Service Wash

In England Paul Mackrell wants to be considered a serious writer, but his addiction to cyber sex induced serial masturbation leaves no blood for his other head to write with; in other words even when he is not beating the meat he suffers from writer's block. To his shock Six Books publishing offers him a chance to ghostwrite the autobiography of renowned soap opera superstar Eileen Weathers, who has played Maggie Parrott, manager of the Clean Queen Launderette for three decades, but the show is beginning to tank and needs a best seller to save it. Paul accepts the ludicrous amount of money, but admits to himself he is intrigued by the rumors that Eileen is a transsexual; besides which how hard can it be to transpose her manuscript into a book. Much more difficult than he thought as Eileen gives him one long partial paragraph so he will be researching and writing the entirety of her life's story. At her mansion, he meets Eileen's Maltese valet, Danny and becomes his plaything even as his writing seems to be worse than when he was unable to write. This is an interesting lampooning of celebrity chasing from TV to tabloids to blogs to biographies and autobiographies (of course written by ghosts). The characters are somewhat more caricature than full blooded even Paul, but that is part of the mocking of an industry that can be quite hypocritical. Though the ending seems lamer than Paul's head (take your pick which one) and some of the satirical elements seem just as shallow as the celebs that Rupert Smith's SERVICE WASH; for instance the use of racial insults detract from the abusing amusing sexual diatribes that ironically make the trash story line fun to read. Harriet Klausner