Hope Sung In The Key Of Lunacy

By Robert N. Chan

To relieve COVID-induced boredom, Robert Lee, a seventy-six-year-old retired litigator, self-publishes a humorous memoir. To his surprise, An Unexamined Life receives multiple five-star reviews. Encouraged, he queries several dozen literary agents. The only one who responds tells him that, in the current market, she cannot sell a book by a straight white male without a track record of substantial sales. As a prank, he pitches his memoir as a send-up of the white, heteronormative, Zionist plutocracy and claims he's a member of LGBTQ+ for Palestine who identifies as an Asian-surnamed Afro-American trans man. Literary agent Jane Dickerstein tells him she can sell the book for big bucks if he changes the title to The Clueless White Patriarch and engages Alex, a trans man and social media mavin, to pose as the author. In furtherance of her obsessive quest to make the retitled book a bestseller, Dickerstein perpetrates outrageous publicity stunts that goose book sales. So what if her efforts destroy Lee's reputation, cause his friends to abandon him, and lead to credible death threats? Lee, however, can't fire her, as she represents the putative author, Alex, not Lee. Then Dickerstein gets shot in the leg, and Alex goes missing and, as time passes, is presumed dead. Already convicted in the court of public opinion, Lee is indicted for attempted murder of Jane and Alex with hate crime enhancement. He must find Alex, stop the runaway publicity train, and clear his name. But does he truly want to halt the campaign that is helping him fulfill his longtime dream of becoming a bestselling author?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F5WDFB8R
• ISBN13: 9798311289672
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 320 Pages
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"