Super funny look at home shopping networks and the people who work for them. I was expecting a series of essay from this book, as I had been used to from Burroughs' other books. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a fiction novel. Burroughs followed five or six characters that all work for Sellevision, the nation's top home shopping network. The book is fun and funny--I read it rather quickly because the characters are so vivid--they border on stereotypical, but then the do something that makes them completely three dimensional. The book started off slow for me, but once I got into it, I didn't want to put it down. Not for those who are very conservative or offended easily.

I originally gave this book a 3 star rating but, as I was writing my review, I realized that all of my complaints were actually just proofs-of-concept. I wanted to complain about shallow characters that I didn’t connect with but the book’s called “Sellevision” and it’s about superficiality and consumer culture. I wanted to complain about how cynical it is and out of sync with the current time period, but I had to take a break to order something from Amazon. I wanted to complain about Burroughs portraying the porn industry and teen sex abuse too lightly, but aren’t looks, sex, youth, and innocence just other products we consume? Ugh.

This book is a quick read and entertaining - when it doesn’t make you feel like shit for participating in all the things Burroughs is criticizing. And that is why it is only a 4 (maybe a 4.25-4.5) because don’t I have enough things right now to feel awful about? Doesn’t it make me sad that 20 years later we are still struggling with all the same bullshit (shinier and more convenient bullshit, but still). Mr. Burroughs, I took a point off because your book made me feel worse about myself. And even though that says more about me than you, don’t I have the right to punish those that hurt me? Thank you for showing me the way Leigh.

I would have liked this better had I read it on the plane, which was my intent - it's not quite the sort of thing I dig, but it was funny enough. It's wildly over-the-top, which is kind of its only charm - from the intro, where the only sympathetic character gets fired from his Home Shopping Network-type job for a wardrobe malfunction of the highest order, it doesn't let up on the broad caricatures or ridiculous action.

It's badly dated, of course, but that can't be helped. I wasn't totally a fan of reading a whole book about hopelessly shallow people (hence the "better on an airplane" part) but Burroughs certainly hit what he was aiming for, I think.

An OK book about television personalities. I prefer Burroughs' memoir and non fiction work myself.
The characters felt too fake and the message, whatever it was, gets sort of lost because of it. Most of the characters were unsympathetic, too. Some of the situations were pretty funny, but you need good characters to make these situations more of a viable story.
Like I said, it was OK. I would recommend a non fiction piece over this book, such as Running With Scissors and A Wolf at the Table.

I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t finish. Which is a rarity for me. I love love love Augusten Burroughs, but 50 pages in to Sellevision, and I still couldn’t get on board. This is Burroughs’ only novel, and I think there’s a reason for that. He’s a fantastic memoir writer, entertaining and self-deprecating, but his talent just didn’t translate well to fiction. Sellevision was supposed to be a witty commentary on our consumerist culture, but for me, it was just too surface-level. The characters were shallow (which, I’m sure was somewhat strategic), the dialogue was boring, and the plot was slow, and not in a cool postmodern kind of way but more in the “why-am-I-reading-about-these-people” kind of way. So disappointed. I guess I’ll stick to Burroughs’ non-fiction.

I rarely finish a book that I can't stand, but this is one. I'm sure plenty of people love the mean-spirited nature of this book, but I can't stand it. Shallow, boring, and completely un-funny.

If you've ever read any books from The Babysitter's Club, you'll know that every other word in each book was "giggle." Now, if it was possible to turn that series into an adult book about TV Shopping Networks and the drama amongst the hosts lives, Sellevision would be it.

I rolled my eyes during the majority of the book and found myself yawning as I read the last 50 pages in 15 minutes while on the stationary bike at the Y.
Don't do it. I want my 4 days back.

Overall Grade: C-/D+

(I'm only about half way through this, but..) After reading a bunch of memoirs by Augusten Burroughs (including a couple that mention writing this), it is so cool and interesting to read this novel. It would be fun anyway, but it's incredibly interesting to see how he included his knowledge of gems and advertising, and how he touches topics that he mentioned in other books like online dating. I could see tiny aspects of his thinking, or thinking he's mentioned from his friends, in aspects of these characters. (How often do you get to know this much about someone's life when you read a novel they've written, unless you know them personally?)

All of the mentioning of brand names and general commercial stuff, just style-wise, reminds me a little bit of something I read by David Foster Wallace, but I can't remember what. But in this setting of Sellevision, that totally goes with the setting and story, it's not glommed on (not that it was glommed on by DFW... honestly can't remember).

In the mood for something darkly funny and deliciously nasty? Look no further than SELLEVISION by Augusten Burroughs, a satirical look at greed and celebrity in the world of a fictional home shopping network. It opens with gorgeous fan-favorite Max Andrews accidentally exposing himself to twenty million kids during a “Toys for Tots” segment, forcing Sellevision Retail Broadcasting Network to face its first scandal. It only gets crazier from there. Burroughs peppers his biting novel with outrageous characters--the good Christian housewife who develops a substance abuse problem; the overly-ambitious, cutthroat starlet who will do anything to reach the top--but the acidic wit never gets washed out by over-the-top soapiness. This is a light read packed with twisted humor aimed to puncture the glossy-surface of the home-shopping industry. Burroughs uses razor-sharp prose to peel the layers back on a business that sells perfection. The jokes go down easy, but the laughs get caught in your throat. A wickedly fun read!

Awesome book!

In the beginning................this is Mr Burroughs first book - not a memoir, but a total spoof on the home shopping scene. Like reading a Saturday Night Live sketch!

I can finally see his humorous side in this tale of TV “stars” beyond the cameras. I loved the whacky characters, perfect parodies. The final line had me laughing out loud!

As usual, he dwells on graphic, off-the-wall sex, but I skipped right over it and concentrated on the humor instead! Although this wasn’t a memoir, many of the things he has actually experienced came through in this fictionalized version of QVC!!

This book sucked and was totally unfunny. I couldn't even make it past the third chapter, and still, I'm pretty positive that my mind wouldn't have changed had I finished it. So stupid.