Fatal Distraction: Or, How I Conquered My Addiction to Celebrities and Got a Life

by Emmi Fredericks

Book Overview

"My name is Eliza H., and I am a celebraholic."

So begins this cautionary tale of how celebraholism can ruin one's life-- or at least one's twenties.

Once, Eliza dreamed of walking down the aisle (at the Oscars) and having a meaningful existence (every minute of which would be chronicled by People magazine). But by her twenties, her soaring ambitions have been reduced to friendships with two people who have some small chance...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312312954
• ISBN13: 9780312312954
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Happily Distracted!

Move over Bridget Jones! Meet Eliza, a struggling celebrity sidekick wannabee. In her great new novel "Fatal Distraction", Emmi Fredericks presents us with a fun, but flawed heroine, someone we can certainly all relate to. Slogging her underpaid way through a thankless, grunt level job in publishing, Eliza fights with her Mother, hangs out at cheap restaurants with her friends and deals with her slightly bizarre boss and co-workers. But, in addition, she has an not-so-private obsession. An addiction, if you will. Back at home, or on the subway, or at lunch, or at her desk while she is supposed to be working, or when she is on a date with her boyfriend, Eliza is thinking about celebrities, reading about celebrities, gossiping about celebrities or, perhaps most of all, basically driving everyone around her crazy with her one track mind and the world of People Magazine and Access Hollywood. After losing her boyfriend and seriously testing the limits of patience with her friends, she decides to go cold turkey and stop once and for all her rather un-healthy "Celebraholic" lifestyle and try to redeem herself in the eyes of those closest to her. However, recovery proves to be much more difficult than she thought and before long she is plotting and scheming on how instead of reading about celebrities, she can get a bit of that celebrity for herself. One snag, though, she feels she has no specific talent of her own to to capitalize on and realizes it is not necessarily her own fame she wants, but the star treatment and prestige and associated with fame with none of the stress and work. So a plan is hatched. Instead of becoming a star herself, Eliza decides the next best thing is to be a celebrity sidekick or as she calls it, a great bit player, and then just reap up some of their benefits. Now all she has to do is find the most likely candidate and give them a good push in the right direction. The candidates being her gorgeous, sweet and clueless, actor friend Danny and her morally challenged performance artist friend Dinah. Will Eliza give in to her worst self and live a glamorous, yet tacky life of exploiting others? Or, will she take the high road, challenge herself and find her true talent, maybe even finding a new love along the way...I thought that this book was great fun, fast read. Despite the fact that a lot of the time Eliza is figuring out a way to potentially use the people she cares about, she is still someone we care about and can relate to her desire to not just be an "anybody" and her climb to "somebody" status. I find it most interesting to see her growth and how she is able to re-define what being a "somebody" is. Do yourself a favor and give this book a try!

A star is born

Like Bonfire of the Vanities, Fatal Distraction is a smart, funny, compulsively readable novel. Fredericks's send-up of our obsession with celebrities is hilarious and dead-on. I read it in one gleeful sitting, and I've been handing out copies to friends--especially the ones who stand beside the mailbox waiting for their next issue of PEOPLE and US magazines to arrive.

Funny and smart

A funny, unique, and intelligent book. The narrator, a young college-educated woman, unwittingly lets life pass her by as she immerses herself in People magazine, the National Enquirer, E!, and the details of every celebrity's life everywhere. All of the characters are well-drawn, but it's the narrator's voice that shines. Her trip through "celebraholism" and 'recovery,' as she discovers to her own surprise that she actually is a person of substance herself, is an entertaining ride. Very witty and well-done parody of the Great American Disease.

Good Times

I had FUN reading this book - filled with the kind of witty one linersthat you re-read to try to memorize. Or read aloud to your interestedor otherwise friend, husband, airplane seat companion. You don't haveto be a full-on celebraholic to relate to this book - any aspiringauthor, actor, new yorker will find themselves laughing at (or morepolitely, with) Eliza. Like a fabulous bar of chocolate, I tried to readthe book over several sittings to spread out and savor the fun. Ihighly recommend bringing the book to the gym or a subway ride or otherexperience you want to brigthen. I enjoyed the fresh celebrity trendhumor replacing the over-played fashion references to La Mere or JuicyCouture. And all of those readers that get angry at writers that fixthe heriones tragic life with Amore will be happy to find a verydifferent savior-hero at the end of this book. Which is very appropriate. All in all, good times...

The best kind of Distraction

This book was a Christmas present which I began the next day and finished by that evening. Even though I only watch the E Channel once or twice a week and read People mag only when found in the dentist's office, I couldn't stop laughing at the adventures of Eliza, the "celebraholic," as she tries to kick her addiction to stars. The book is hilariously funny -- Eliza is so addicted to gossip that she even rather hopefully asks her boyfriend if he is a cross-dresser, and Fredericks provides a series of laugh-out-loud celebrity tips (ie, When You Know A Hollywood Marriage Won't Last: "After the adoption of the first orphan.") But FATAL DISTRACTION also captures poignantly the fact that all of us in these star-crossed modern times would like to be somebody else, if only for a while.