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A Novel of Reality Television by the Author of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Simon and Schuster
May 2007
On Sale: May 1, 2007
288 pages
ISBN: 141653525X
EAN: 9781416535256
Hardcover
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Humor | Fiction
The
year is 2012, and as the Most Famous Television Producer in
the World
is walking down a wintry New York City block, he's accosted by a
homeless-looking cripple who, like everyone else, insists he
has the
formula for the greatest TV show of all time. As it turns
out, he does:
Contestants will compete for one hundred million dollars. If
they win,
they're rich. If they lose, they face immediate on-camera
execution. As the Producer begins scheming to
steal the idea and revive his fading career, The Big
Question
introduces the extraordinary characters who will ultimately
become the
show's contestants -- a brilliantly rendered, Dickensian
cast that
includes the seventy-something Vera Bundle, with a taste for
scotch and
encyclopedias; Arthur Durch, a convicted sex
offender-turned-relationship therapist; Retta Mae Wagons, a
sixteen-year-old prostitute with an IQ of 170 and an
ex-con-turned-Muslim fundamentalist boyfriend who doesn't
appreciate
her; Billy Constable, the Kentucky rube who gets off a bus
in New York
and promptly finds himself in trouble with the Mob; and
Father Brady,
the devout Catholic priest with a mortifying secret to hide
at any
cost. As the first episode is broadcast live in front of
millions, the
audience, the cast, and the crew behind the scenes do the
unthinkable:
they sit and watch, rapt and glassy-eyed, as the final
contestant left
on stage meets an unimaginable fate. To say
The Big Question
is a novel of greed and immorality would be putting it
lightly. But to
read this book without laughing out loud at every page would be
impossible. This is more than just a funny book, though.
With uncanny
precision and razor-sharp wit, the inimitable Chuck Barris
reveals the
inconceivable lengths to which people will go for those
priceless
fifteen minutes, the fascination we have with the little
black box in
our homes -- and the horrifying deeds done in the name of
entertainment.
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