Out of My Skin

By John Haskell

Book Overview

Los Angeles. A would-be movie reviewer, looking for romance, takes an assignment to write a magazine article about celebrity look-alikes. After getting to know a Steve Martin impersonator, the writer decides to undertake his own process of transformation and becomes not Steve Martin but a version of him--graceful, charming, at home in the world. Safe in the guise of "Steve," he begins to fall in love. And that's when "Steve" takes over. Set in the capital of illusion, this is a story of one man's journey into paradise--and his attempt to come out the other side.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374299099
• ISBN13: 9780374299095
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Bizarre, but interesting.

An unhappy man decides to become Steve Martin. It starts a bit slowly, and at times the main character's depression is a bit of a drag to read. But it is far more original and interesting than the vast majority of books. Well worth a read.

If Only He Could be Steve Martin, He Believes, He Would be Happy

John Haskell has written a taut, sinewy novel Out of My Skin, which presents a self-loathing narrator, a struggling New York writer who has recently moved to Los Angeles, so crippled by neuroses that he feels compelled to reject himself and instead become the actor/comedian Steve Martin. When he experiences insecurities as himself, these insecurities seem unpalatable, but when he experiences his foibles as Steve Martin, they become easier to swallow. As the novel progresses, the narrator becomes more and more obsessed with Steve Martin, living vicariously through what he perceives Steve Martin to be. This alter ego becomes a way of coping: An escape from the demons within himself he is too terrified to face. A good companion for this funny, sometimes lugubrious novella, is the film Being John Malkovich, which also tackles the theme of self-loathing people wanting to vicariously live through celebrities.

"Not only did I prefer [being] Steve, I was seeing my old self as a hindrance."

(4.5 stars) In this "autobiographical novel," author John Haskell tells the story of Jack Haskell, an excruciatingly self-conscious young man who has given himself one month in Los Angeles to see if he can find a job. Unsure of himself and constantly obsessing about the impression he is making, Jack is seeking a job in journalism, preferably writing about the film industry. It is not surprising that Jack, insecure in the real world, loves old films and feels most comfortable with actors and acting. In Los Angeles he soon meets Scott, who is starring in Bertold Brecht's Galileo, while supporting himself as a Steve Martin impersonator. Soon Jack is acting like Scott acting like Steve Martin. Eventually, Jack applies for a full-time job as a Steve Martin imitator. As Jack throws himself completely into his role as Steve Martin, he discovers that "an entirely new world was possible." When he meets Jane, a writer of young adult fiction, he finds that he is able, as Steve, to make overtures with a confidence that the real Jack Haskell has never felt. As the relationship progresses, however, Jack realizes that he must understand who he is--without relying on Steve--if he is ever going to have a complete relationship. Within this relatively simple framework, author John Haskell writes a fully realized and rich novel in which every detail adds to his themes of fantasy vs. reality, pretense vs. integrity, and expediency vs. personal courage. The author creates dozens of parallels between the insecure Jack, and the world of drama and actors, compressing them to give depth and universality to what might appear at first to be a somewhat superficial story about a superficial and undeveloped character. Every detail counts. Several films serve as motifs. In the 1945 film of Detour, a young piano player hitchhikes across the country to woo a lounge singer. During the trip, the owner of the car, ironically named Charles Haskell, dies, and the hitchhiker then assumes his identity. Sunset Boulevard (1950) reminds Jack of his relationship with Jane. Here, William Holden, an unsuccessful scriptwriter flees in his about-to-be-repossessed car. Turning into an old, seemingly abandoned mansion, he discovers Gloria Swanson, a silent-era film star, who offers him a place to stay, while he pretends to love her. Steve Martin's Roxanne (1989), a film paralleling the story of Cyrano de Bergerac, also figures in the plot. Jack's fascination with the transformation of Archibald Leach into the actor Cary Grant, and his equal obsession with the remarkably insecure Charles Laughton, who played the role of Galileo in the 1947 play, are also motifs. One of the best constructed novels I've read in ages, this is a study of a young man of extreme sensibility who is trying to deal with himself and his limitations. Some readers may become impatient with Jack's extreme self-consciousness (and self-indulgence), but for those who love carefully realized, often humorous, n