The Chrysanthemum Palace: A Novel

Bruce Wagner

Mar 2013 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

The Chrysanthemum Palace introduces Bertie Krohn, the only child of Perry Krohn, creator of TV's longest running space opera, Starwatch: The Navigators (which counts Jennifer Aniston and Donald Rumsfeld among its obsessed fans). Bertie recounts the story of the last months in the lives of his two companions: Thad Michelet, author, actor, and son of a literary titan; and Clea Freemantle, emotionally fragile daughter of a legendary movie star, long dead. Scions of entertainment greatness, they call themselves the Three Musketeers; between them, as Bertie says, "there was more than enough material to bring psychoanalysis back into vogue." As the incestuous clique attempts to scale the peaks claimed by their sacred yet monstrous parents over a two-week filming of a Starwatch episode in which they costar, Bertie scrupulously chronicles their highs and lows -- as well as their futile struggles against the ravenous, narcissistic, Convulsive and poignant, The Chrysanthemum Palace is a tragic tale of friendship and fate writ large -- a tour de force by a major writer whose narrative delivers devastating emotional impact.

Ratings and reviews

Bruce Wagner could write a grocery list worth publishing, but this story is not moving in the least. Here, the lack of affect in Wagner's characters is not balanced by his trademark spine-chilling hints at how evil Hollywood really is. There's a mix of shrugging and wondering if you should chuckle at the ending. Money is everything and nothing to these walking-dead characters. Ol' Blackjack the dead writer looms large and is sorta amusing. I must believe BW's tongue was in his cheek when he wrote the word "shite" in a grandiose Blackjack interview showing the smallness of the "literary great's" personality. That shite only flies as parody. Wagner's merciless mockery of Star Trek throughout the book is no doubt honest, but bleak and too personal, as if Wagner the Hollywood insider/screenwriter has an ax to grind with someone or numerous someones involved in the ST franchise. (I'm not even sure he is mocking science fiction itself, because I'm left with the impression he could write a mean sci-fi script.) There is nothing touching or transcendent about this beautifully written but empty book. I recommend it, but it's a bad choice for a first Bruce Wagner book to read (Dead Stars is his best novel, and one of the most innovative novels of the 21st century so far). The ending is just horrible and doesn't make much sense (apart from containing a final Star Trek cutdown, as though black humor is the point in all the pointless seriousness ). Gambling a large amount of money in desperation for money that could never be won in a casino is ridiculous, but self-destruction is probably the point. Ol' Blackjack surely smiled upwards when this tale was told.

About the author

Bruce Wagner is the author of The Chrysanthemum Palace (a PEN Faulkner fiction award finalist); Still Holding; I'll Let You Go (a PEN USA fiction award finalist); I'm Losing You; and Force Majeure. He lives in Los Angeles.