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    Potboiler
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    Potboiler
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    Potboiler
    Audiobook11 hours

    Potboiler

    Written by Jesse Kellerman

    Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Arthur Pfefferkorn is a has-been, or perhaps a never-was: a middle-aged college professor with long-dead literary aspirations. When his oldest friend, bestselling thriller writer William de Vallee, is lost at sea, Pfefferkorn is torn between envy and grief, for de Vallee not only outshone Pfefferkorn professionally, but married the woman Pfefferkorn loved.Pfefferkorn's decision to reconnect with de Vallee's widow sets in motion a surreal chain of events, plunging him into a shadowy realm of double crosses and intrigue, a world where no one can be trusted--and nothing can be taken seriously.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 5, 2012
    ISBN9781101564240
    Unavailable
    Potboiler
    Author

    Jesse Kellerman

    Jesse Kellerman is the author of Potboiler, The Executor, The Genius, Trouble, Sunstroke. and with Jonathan Kellerman, The Golem of Hollywood. His books and plays have won several awards and an Edgar Award nomination. He lives in California.

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    Reviews for Potboiler

    3/5

    70 ratings26 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Couldn't like any of the characters
    • 3/5
      Mostly I enjoyed this tongue in cheek spy thriller. Its over the top absurdity was quite funny. I wasn't happy with the strange ending because it went a bit, ok a lot, far fetched but overall an enjoyable read.
    • 5/5
      POTBOILER by Jesse Kellerman: I haven't read Jesse Kellerman's previous novels, which appear to be complex thrillers, but based on the cleverness he demonstrates in POTBOILER, I'm very interested in reading more of his work. POTBOILER cannot be easily categorized. It's an affectionate parody of the thriller genre, but it functions equally well as a thriller in its own right. However ridiculous and implausible the twists and turns, this novel kept me chuckling at Kellerman's gentle mocking of his own genre while at the same time biting my nails in anticipation. I couldn't help but laugh at myself and how swept up in the absurd action I became.Arthur Pfefferkorn is a college professor with one critically acclaimed novel far, far in his past. He's avoided his oldest friend, William de Vallee, for years, jealous of his wife and his bestselling oeuvre of thrillers while contemptuous of the non-literary genre. When de Vallee disappears and is declared dead, Pfefferkorn takes a reckless step that pulls him into a world of international intrigue, conspiracy, and double crosses. To rescue de Vallee's widow (with whom he is still in love), he takes on a shadowy assignment from a questionable government agency and ventures into Zlabia, an utterly absurd nation divided into two entirely different cultures. Zlabia is a hoot, and it's to Kellerman's credit that I remained engaged in the action despite the ridiculous aspects of Zlabian politics.To point out the cleverest twists would be to spoil the unfolding plot. This is a book I will recommend to everyone I know just so I can talk about it with someone and say, "Wasn't it perfect when Pfefferkorn said X and then Y happened later?!" A devoted thriller fan who sees nothing amusing in the conventions of the genre will not enjoy this book, but anyone who read, say, THE DA VINCI CODE and rolled her eyes at the stilted prose and pat descriptions (while frantically turning the pages to see what happens next) will adore POTBOILER. I am even willing to confess my secret addiction to Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels to illustrate my qualifications in making this recommendation. The over-the-top writing drives me a little crazy and the stereotypes and predictable elements required of the genre make me roll my eyes; yet, I can't not read them.When Pfefferkorn finally reads a de Vallee novel, he is contemptuous:"The thirty-third installment in a series, the novel featured special agent Richard "Dick" Stapp, a brilliant, physically invincible figure formerly in the employ of a shadowy but never-named government arm whose apparent sole purpose was to furnish story lines for thrillers. Pfefferkorn recognized the formula easily enough. Stapp, supposedly in retirement, finds himself drawn into an elaborate conspiracy involving one or more of the following: an assassination, a terrorist strike, a missing child, or the theft of highly sensitive documents that, if made public, could lead to full-blown nuclear engagement. His involvement in the case often begins against his will. I've had it with this rotten business he is fond of avowing. Who in real life, Pfefferkorn wondered, avowed anything?"This over-the-top language turns up in elements of POTBOILER that highlight its absurdity, as in the fabulous description of a character's mustache: "Pfefferkorn could not tell his age, due to a full eighty percent of his face being hidden behind the largest, bushiest, most aggressively expansionist moustache Pfefferkorn had ever seen. It was a a with submoustaches that in turn had sub-submoustaches, each of which might be said to be deserving of its own area code. It was a moustache that vexed profoundly questions of waxing, a moustache the merest glimpse of which might spur female musk oxen to ovulate. It was a moustache that would have driven Nietzsche mad with envy, had he not been mad already. If the three most copiously flowing waterfalls in the world, Niagara, Victoria, and Iguazu Falls, were somehow united, and their combined outputs rendered in facial hair, this man's moustache would not have been an inaccurate model, save that this man's moustache also challenged traditional notions of gravity by growing outward, upward, and laterally. It was an impressive moustache and Pfefferkorn was impressed."Pfefferkorn is fond of coming up with outlandish ideas and wondering if they might be good premises for a novel. Naturally, these wild plot developments turn up in the Zlabian intrigue. Throughout commentary on the Zlabian hit show The Poem, It Is Bad! and the magical disguising power of mustaches, the overly complicated plot unfolds with precision in ways that are both predictable and unexpected. This is a masterful satire of the thriller genre, but at the same time, a fantastic thriller. It might be the ultimate beach read.Source disclosure: I received an uncorrected proof of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.
    • 4/5
      Every once in a while it's fun to forget the world and read a potboiler. The writer dashes off a novel of low quality, like a chef throwing everything into a pot instead of taking the time to cook a delicious dish with multiple individual flavors. The writer, like the chef, throws everything together focusing on the commercial value and ease of creating a product. Writing thrillers can allow the author to whip out a story filled with cheap thrills but also with indecipherable plot complications that lead the reader to think some high level crafting was required. Arthur Pfefferkorn, a creative writing instructor at a small college on the Eastern Seaboard, has no intention of deigning to write potboilers. He wrote one tortured literary novel years ago that was damned with mild praise and destined to be a commercial failure. Lacking resilience, Art decided to quit writing and inflict his tiny talent on students. On the other hand, Art’s friend from high school and college, Bill, has been a success publishing potboiler thrillers for years, writing one best seller after another. Art has shunned Bill’s attempts to stay in contact, projecting his own self-loathing as a writer onto his old friend’s life.Bill dies and Art travels to Los Angeles for the funeral. He stays at Bill’s house at the invitation of Bill’s widow, Art’s former girlfriend from college days whom he has always loved even though he married and had a daughter with someone else. Sex ensues between the two mourners. Art uses the opportunity to steal one of Bill’s unfinished manuscripts and takes it back east. A complete sellout, he rewrites and finishes the book, changing it enough to claim it as his own potboiler. It is an instant best seller leading to great financial success.Good so far, right? Well, now in the Kellerman's novel plot complications are thrown into the mix with all the key elements of thrillers: sex, money, spies, secret codes, third world civil war, assassinations, international oil business, kidnapping, potentate shenanigans, escape, betrayal, and schmaltz. Art gets involved in all these happenings without an ounce of grace as a person, griping all the way. The politics and intrigue of the third world West and East Zlabia are so complicated the reader is bored beyond belief and is relieved when the novel returns to Art’s personal life and thoughts about his family, finance, future, and fornication. Profundity abounds and readers are so darned happy the Zlabian interludes are over that they start to believe that Kellerman has written a serious novel. Potboiler is a fun spoof on the thriller genre, and readers will end up laughing at themselves for their uncritical consumption of some of the creative work in this category.
    • 1/5
      The first two sections were great. Interesting idea about a man who hasn't done so well in his writing career and steals the manuscript from a dead friend. The book is a great success, and now he has money and he's famous. Then the rest of the book goes off in an absurd direction with spies and a foreign country with dead and then not dead leaders. I could barely finish this book. It was like two people had written parts of two books and stuck them together. Would not recommend.
    • 3/5
      I am not so much the cloak and dagger spy reader. Sort of a slow start, like a watched pot waiting for the rolling boil, but once the action started, the story took off in a crazy, unbelievable direction. I like Jesse Kellerman a lot, and this novel, while quite different, remains readable due mainly to the excellent pacing and good dialogue that are the hallmarks of the other Jesse Kellerman books.
    • 1/5
      Currently a DNF, will try again later.
    • 5/5
      POTBOILER by Jesse Kellerman: I haven't read Jesse Kellerman's previous novels, which appear to be complex thrillers, but based on the cleverness he demonstrates in POTBOILER, I'm very interested in reading more of his work. POTBOILER cannot be easily categorized. It's an affectionate parody of the thriller genre, but it functions equally well as a thriller in its own right. However ridiculous and implausible the twists and turns, this novel kept me chuckling at Kellerman's gentle mocking of his own genre while at the same time biting my nails in anticipation. I couldn't help but laugh at myself and how swept up in the absurd action I became.Arthur Pfefferkorn is a college professor with one critically acclaimed novel far, far in his past. He's avoided his oldest friend, William de Vallee, for years, jealous of his wife and his bestselling oeuvre of thrillers while contemptuous of the non-literary genre. When de Vallee disappears and is declared dead, Pfefferkorn takes a reckless step that pulls him into a world of international intrigue, conspiracy, and double crosses. To rescue de Vallee's widow (with whom he is still in love), he takes on a shadowy assignment from a questionable government agency and ventures into Zlabia, an utterly absurd nation divided into two entirely different cultures. Zlabia is a hoot, and it's to Kellerman's credit that I remained engaged in the action despite the ridiculous aspects of Zlabian politics.To point out the cleverest twists would be to spoil the unfolding plot. This is a book I will recommend to everyone I know just so I can talk about it with someone and say, "Wasn't it perfect when Pfefferkorn said X and then Y happened later?!" A devoted thriller fan who sees nothing amusing in the conventions of the genre will not enjoy this book, but anyone who read, say, THE DA VINCI CODE and rolled her eyes at the stilted prose and pat descriptions (while frantically turning the pages to see what happens next) will adore POTBOILER. I am even willing to confess my secret addiction to Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels to illustrate my qualifications in making this recommendation. The over-the-top writing drives me a little crazy and the stereotypes and predictable elements required of the genre make me roll my eyes; yet, I can't not read them.When Pfefferkorn finally reads a de Vallee novel, he is contemptuous:"The thirty-third installment in a series, the novel featured special agent Richard "Dick" Stapp, a brilliant, physically invincible figure formerly in the employ of a shadowy but never-named government arm whose apparent sole purpose was to furnish story lines for thrillers. Pfefferkorn recognized the formula easily enough. Stapp, supposedly in retirement, finds himself drawn into an elaborate conspiracy involving one or more of the following: an assassination, a terrorist strike, a missing child, or the theft of highly sensitive documents that, if made public, could lead to full-blown nuclear engagement. His involvement in the case often begins against his will. I've had it with this rotten business he is fond of avowing. Who in real life, Pfefferkorn wondered, avowed anything?"This over-the-top language turns up in elements of POTBOILER that highlight its absurdity, as in the fabulous description of a character's mustache: "Pfefferkorn could not tell his age, due to a full eighty percent of his face being hidden behind the largest, bushiest, most aggressively expansionist moustache Pfefferkorn had ever seen. It was a a with submoustaches that in turn had sub-submoustaches, each of which might be said to be deserving of its own area code. It was a moustache that vexed profoundly questions of waxing, a moustache the merest glimpse of which might spur female musk oxen to ovulate. It was a moustache that would have driven Nietzsche mad with envy, had he not been mad already. If the three most copiously flowing waterfalls in the world, Niagara, Victoria, and Iguazu Falls, were somehow united, and their combined outputs rendered in facial hair, this man's moustache would not have been an inaccurate model, save that this man's moustache also challenged traditional notions of gravity by growing outward, upward, and laterally. It was an impressive moustache and Pfefferkorn was impressed."Pfefferkorn is fond of coming up with outlandish ideas and wondering if they might be good premises for a novel. Naturally, these wild plot developments turn up in the Zlabian intrigue. Throughout commentary on the Zlabian hit show The Poem, It Is Bad! and the magical disguising power of mustaches, the overly complicated plot unfolds with precision in ways that are both predictable and unexpected. This is a masterful satire of the thriller genre, but at the same time, a fantastic thriller. It might be the ultimate beach read.Source disclosure: I received an uncorrected proof of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.
    • 4/5
      Every once in a while it's fun to forget the world and read a potboiler. The writer dashes off a novel of low quality, like a chef throwing everything into a pot instead of taking the time to cook a delicious dish with multiple individual flavors. The writer, like the chef, throws everything together focusing on the commercial value and ease of creating a product. Writing thrillers can allow the author to whip out a story filled with cheap thrills but also with indecipherable plot complications that lead the reader to think some high level crafting was required. Arthur Pfefferkorn, a creative writing instructor at a small college on the Eastern Seaboard, has no intention of deigning to write potboilers. He wrote one tortured literary novel years ago that was damned with mild praise and destined to be a commercial failure. Lacking resilience, Art decided to quit writing and inflict his tiny talent on students. On the other hand, Art’s friend from high school and college, Bill, has been a success publishing potboiler thrillers for years, writing one best seller after another. Art has shunned Bill’s attempts to stay in contact, projecting his own self-loathing as a writer onto his old friend’s life.Bill dies and Art travels to Los Angeles for the funeral. He stays at Bill’s house at the invitation of Bill’s widow, Art’s former girlfriend from college days whom he has always loved even though he married and had a daughter with someone else. Sex ensues between the two mourners. Art uses the opportunity to steal one of Bill’s unfinished manuscripts and takes it back east. A complete sellout, he rewrites and finishes the book, changing it enough to claim it as his own potboiler. It is an instant best seller leading to great financial success.Good so far, right? Well, now in the Kellerman's novel plot complications are thrown into the mix with all the key elements of thrillers: sex, money, spies, secret codes, third world civil war, assassinations, international oil business, kidnapping, potentate shenanigans, escape, betrayal, and schmaltz. Art gets involved in all these happenings without an ounce of grace as a person, griping all the way. The politics and intrigue of the third world West and East Zlabia are so complicated the reader is bored beyond belief and is relieved when the novel returns to Art’s personal life and thoughts about his family, finance, future, and fornication. Profundity abounds and readers are so darned happy the Zlabian interludes are over that they start to believe that Kellerman has written a serious novel. Potboiler is a fun spoof on the thriller genre, and readers will end up laughing at themselves for their uncritical consumption of some of the creative work in this category.
    • 2/5
      This was a very disappointing novel. I guess I expected something well written that did not become satire. I was wrong. Arthur Pfefferkorn is a successful man wanna-be. He cannot write a bestseller though he wants to do just that. His best friend, however, is a bestselling author and married the girl Arthur wanted to marry. When his friend mysteriously disappears aboard a boat (no body found, however), Arthur passes one of his friend’s draft manuscripts off as his as well as taking up with his best friend’s widow. This sets off a crazy chain of events in strange countries, with Arthur in the middle of an assignation plot. Initially, the book reads smoothly and well, but it disintegrates quickly once Arthur steals his friend’s manuscript and wife. As I read the book, I wondered where exactly things were going, as the storyline just got crazier and crazier. The book satirizes bestseller novel writing but does it is a rough, unusual way, which leaves the reader trying to figure out exactly what is going on and how it all ties together (or if it does). I imagine the author wanted to prove something, but just what that was and whether he accomplished his goal is uncertain to me. I received this boo from goodreads.
    • 4/5
      What a very strange book this is. I think I'm going to have to read it again soon, for there are stories within stories and tricks within tricks and what starts as a sort of pellucid Updikian tale (yes, Updikian is a word, a nice word that should rhyme with rabbits)...twists and twists again. And again. And what is real? What what is written? And wait, how did we wake up here? And...um, who was dead, again? And what is literature? And what is reality? And quick, dodge that bullet!

      And who would like a nice helping of rootvegetable casserole and goat milk?

      I probably would never have picked this book up on my own; I'm grateful for the first read program (from whence this came, magically, in a plain brown envelope, brought by a man in brown. Hmmm, that's got to be significant, right?)

      I'll recommend it to all my friends, just to have someone to talk with about this one.
    • 3/5
      This uncorrected proof from the Early Reviewers giveaway is a lighthearted spoof of serious thrillers. As a one-off read and a break from the mysteries that are my usual fare, I can't complain. I wouldn't enjoy a steady diet of this silliness, however. Arthur Pfefferkorn becomes a reluctant spy as a result of his own desire for fame as a writer. His adventures take him to the third world, to a country called West (or is it East?) Zlabia. Here, Kellerman's imagined government ministries, like the Ministry of Flexible Ductwork, the Ministry of Volatile Mineral Colloids, and the Ministry of Long-Chain Organic Compounds produced a few laughs. Not much else in the book was memorable. It was amusing while it lasted, but I'll not need another 'funny thiller' for quite some time.
    • 2/5
      Having been a huge fan of Jesse's parents (Jonathon and Faye Kellerman) work for a long time I read his first few novels, Double Homicide, Sunstroke and Trouble, all psychological thrillers, where Jesse proved to have inherited his parent's talents. However, Jesse's latter novels have shown a bent for irreverence, combining psychological thriller with quirky and unusual elements.Potboiler was not anything like what I was expecting. It's a satirical novel, mocking popular fiction and I'm not entirely sure if Kellerman's intent is good humoured or a little malicious. A 'potboiler' is defined as work produced only for financial gain written without concern for literary merit. Kellerman's 'Potboiler' is a parody of an action thriller novel, within a novel that is in itself a thriller.Whimsical bordering on absurd at times, it features the genres cliche's of well worn phrases, unlikely plot twists and larger than life characters and yet in the next breath turns them on their heads. Potboiler is somehow predictable and yet entirely not and while it's contradictory nature is odd it is also somehow compelling. I kept reading partly in a vain attempt to make sense of the novel, but also because Kellerman is a talented author who's writing kept me engaged almost against my will.I have to admit I'm reluctant to recommend Potboiler, largely because I don't know who I would recommend it to - a literary snob who envies the success of bestselling thriller writers like Dan Brown perhaps? I just don't know, but if satire is your thing then Potboiler may be the book for you.
    • 1/5
      The first two sections were great. Interesting idea about a man who hasn't done so well in his writing career and steals the manuscript from a dead friend. The book is a great success, and now he has money and he's famous. Then the rest of the book goes off in an absurd direction with spies and a foreign country with dead and then not dead leaders. I could barely finish this book. It was like two people had written parts of two books and stuck them together. Would not recommend.
    • 1/5
      Let me start by saying that I have read all of Jesse Kellerman's previous books. I was impressed by them and enjoyed reading them. Not so with this book. Very uncharacteristically I could not even finish this book. It totally failed to capture my attention because what I did read (about a quarter of the book) seemed really contrived and artificial - almost like the author was struggling to write and was reaching for a story.Hopefully, he will be back to good form with his next book.
    • 4/5
      The main character, Arthur Pfefferkorn, has been tempted. He gives in to temptation and then has regrets. How do we undo the things we wish we had not done. Unfortunately, most of the time we can't. Arthur's temptation snowballs and leads him into a life he didn't plan where he can't trust anyone and is afraid for his life. Is it fate? Good novel. Happy to see Kellerman has inherited great storytelling skills.
    • 4/5
      This is an outstanding book. Just when I thought I knew where it was going another twist was sprung upon me! The character development is excellent. Every chapter and new revelation takes you deeper into the mind and spirit of Arthur Pfefferkorn revealing a man of very believable depth and humanity. And yet… is this a spoof, was Jesse just having a very good time writing this? Whatever, it was a pleasure to read! I recommend it.
    • 2/5
      Arthur Pfefferkorn is a "one and done" author teaching a writing course in college. His once best friend, and very successful author has been missing for a year, and he is invited to a memorial service. Jesse Kellerman has written a parody of so many literary types, I lost track. His tongue in cheek style, unfortunatley faded for me when Arthur ended up in the fictional country of Zlabia.While the previous parts of the book held my interest, I quickly became bored with the ridiculousness of this part of the plot. One of the Zlabian characters summed up my feelings when she said "I'm not a writer, I just know what I like" I didn't like it enough to recommend it. Sorry Jesse!
    • 4/5
      I'm not sure if this is thriller, a spoof, or just a great read.Arthur Pfefferkorn is a middle aged college writing teacher. His childhood friend, William deValle is a well know thriller writer. When William is lost at sea Arthur finds himself in love, with Williams wife, a writer and spy.This is also a comedy of errors and laugh out loud phrasing keeps the reader laughing through the book. My favorite, "it was like the California Bar long and hard." this reviewer is convinced that kellerman was just having a great time with all the ends and outs of the story. The ending has a touch of super natural to it which will entice the young reader. I'll never read another James Patterson or Clive cussler without wonder what county it is coded for. (smile)I enjoy this family of authors and look forward to the next story. Recommended
    • 4/5
      What a HOOT! I am a Real Thriller junkie & normally shy away from humor - not this time! 007 spoof? Borat? Austin Powers? - all come to mind. And yet the suspense aspect remained. Pretty clever. Thanks JK for creating an entertaining read!
    • 3/5
      Not my normal read, but it moved along quickly with some twists. I would try another book by this author.
    • 2/5
      This book defies classification. On its surface it's a spy novel/mystery. But underneath it's more like an exercise in spy novel/mystery writing. Kellerman employs as many elements as you can think of: the cross, the double cross, the secret agent, the sleeper agent, the hidden message, the threat of communism, the shady and unstable foreign country, the sinister but necessary American agency, the death trap, the red herring, and the deus ex machina. Then he mixes it up a bit by adding in elements of the absurd: cliche, camp, spoof, sarcasm, & "funny" names (Jesus Maria de Lunchbox, for example).As a novel, I hated this book. The plot is contrived, the characters unlikeable, and the humor not funny. As an exercise in writing a spy novel, I was moderately amused. It's clear that Kellerman worked hard and had fun putting this book together. In the end, it's just a bit too clever and "inside baseball" for me.
    • 3/5
      As with a lot of people I first read Jessie Kellerman because of his parents, but after reading his first book I knew this was a writer with his own style and voice. So reading this novel I was expecting something different and was not disappointed. When I finished the book I felt like I just read 3 different books within one title. To me it begins as a man trying to understand what has happened to him in his life and working on his feelings about the death of his best friend. Then the book changes into a story of success even if not all on his own accord and the trappings of wealth and fame. Then just a fast it becomes a thriller that leaves you wondering about our world and what really is going on and who has the true answers. The ending left me really thinking about the freedom authors have to take us into realms that we do not understand and may never figure out. It was a good read.
    • 5/5
      I've read three other of Jesse Kellerman's books and enjoyed them all. One thing I appreciate is that he doesn't stick to one style of writing, which is a nice change of pace. This book has much more humor than his other ones -- I was reading this on the bus and laughed out loud at a scene involving a fake mustache. I, the individual, thoroughly enjoyed this book and, as always, am looking forward to his next one.
    • 5/5
      Suspenseful and fun to read . I would highly recommend this book to anyone. I enjoy reading his parents books and he did not disappoint. keep up the good work
    • 3/5
      Different. The author is certain to be talented as his parrents are both best selling authors. Amazing his style is totally his own and nothing like them. Potboiler is an interesting read. Many twists and turns and some twists that leave the reader a bit confused. Somehow, a not too accomplished writer is recruited into the world of spies and given the opportunity to become a best sellling author as long as he doesn't do the writing. He is then sent on a mission to rescue his missing best friend's wife, who is his current lover. Of course, betrayed, he must rescue himself, and an obscure country from destruction. I enjoyed the actual reading and yet had trouble with understanding the storyline.