Self-Esteem: A Novel (2012)
by Preston David Bailey

FORMAT: EPUB and MOBI
PAGES: 294
LANGUAGE: English
GENRE: Dark Comedy, Thriller, Satire

Dr. James Crawford is a miserable failure at everything except telling people how to live, which has made him rich and famous. Now his fortune could be coming to an end. Crawford has reluctantly endorsed The Happy Pappy Show, a children’s series with tidbits of Crawford’s wisdom and a cartoon-like host that is threatening to kill him. Set against the cultural and political uncertainty of 1990s Los Angeles and written in a cinematic style that provokes the showbiz world of pop psychology, Self-Esteem: A Novel follows a successful self-help guru stuck in a booze-drenched nightmare trying to save his marriage, renew his relationship with his son, end an affair, appease his business partner, and prepare for his last talk show. But salvation seems a small hill to climb while contemplating an ominous tormentor that may or may not exist. His only hope seems to be an emotionally distant professor who downplays his problems and a famous rap artist who credits Crawford with his success. A dark satire as neurotic as its subject, Self-Esteem is an examination of the madness caused by the constant quest for happiness in a consumer culture based on profit rather than results. The novel also ponders what positive influence, if any, the self-esteem movement has on American society, in which self-love and narcissism are sometimes indistinguishable.

WEBSITE: https://www.self-series.com/
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