"The Locklear Letters"
(Reviewed by Poornima Apte JAN 11 2004)
Sid Straw is an average yet likable salesman at a software company. In what he considers routine procedure, he casually asks ex-classmate and current celebrity, Heather Locklear, for an autographed picture of hers that he can present to his brother Tom on his birthday.
Needless to add, the letters seem to not reach their destination. Instead, hilariously, Straw gets increasingly embroiled in embarrassing situations. These eventually cost him his job and his girlfriend. He is forced to move in with his parents and even gets booted out of the UCLA reunion committee. All until Sid manages to get back at the powers-that-be in the one language most of LA understands - "legalese."
Kun's delightful book is crafted as a series of letters written by Sid Straw to the various people in the cast. The story develops through the letters and Sid's quick asides make for amusing reading. Even at well over three hundred pages, The Locklear Letters makes for quick reading. Hun's engaging letters and farcical story make this an amusing if sometimes too casual a read.
In the current age of celebrity gawking, Kun shows the rest of us that even the mildest form of celebrity worship can sometimes have disastrous, unintended consequences.- Amazon readers rating:
from 36 reviews
Read sort of a chapter excerpt from The Locklear Letters at the author's Web site.
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Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)
- A Thousand Benjamins (1990)
- The Locklear Letters (June 2003)
- Cowboy Outfit (November 2003) (Read story online)
- My Wife and My Dead Wife (June 2004)
- You Poor Monster: Or This Should Answer Your Questions, My Son (June 2005)
- Corrections to My Memoirs : Collected Stories (January 2007)
Other:
- The Baseball Uncyclopedia: A Highly Opinonated Myth-Busting Guide to the Great American Game (February 2006)
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Book Marks:
- The official Web site for Michael Kun
- Bookslut review of The Locklear Letters
- The Celebrity Cafe review of The Locklear Letters
- USA Today on Cowboy Outfit, an Open Book
- Read Cowboy Outfit online - new chapters posted every Thursday
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About the Author:
Michael Kun is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia Law School. His pulished his first novel in 1990. His short stories have appeared in Other Voices, Fiction, StoryQuarterly, and Cottonwood, among other publications.
He lives and practices law in Los Angeles.
