When Whiting Writers' Award winner Teddy Wayne published his critically acclaimed debut, Kapitoil, it was hailed as "one of the best novels of [this] generation" by the Boston Globe and was shortlisted for a spate of national prizes.
Jonathan Franzen wrote in The Daily Beast
that "no other writer, as far as I know, has invented such a funny and
compelling voice and story for [this type of character.]" Now, in The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, Wayne turns his sharp wit, flawless narrative ventriloquism, and humane sensibility to our monstrous obsession with fame.
Megastar
Jonny Valentine, eleven-year-old icon of bubblegum pop, knows that the
fans don't love him for who he is. The talented singer's image, voice,
and even hairdo have been relentlessly packaged--by his L.A. label and
his hard-partying manager-mother, Jane--into bite-size pabulum. But
within the marketing machine, somewhere, Jonny is still a vulnerable
little boy, perplexed by his budding sexuality and his heartthrob
status, dependent on Jane, and endlessly searching for his absent father
in Internet fan sites, lonely emails, and the crowds of faceless fans.
Poignant,
brilliant, and viciously funny, told through the eyes of one of the
most unforgettable child narrators, this literary masterpiece explores
with devastating insight and empathy the underbelly of success in
21st-century America. The Love Song of Jonny Valentine is a tour de force by a standout voice of his generation.

Review

''The Love Song of Jonny Valentine takes us deep into the dark arts and even darker heart of mass-market celebrity, twenty-first-century version. In the near-pubescent hitmaker of the title, Teddy Wayne delivers a wild ride through the upper echelons of the entertainment machine as it ingests human beings at one end and spews out dollars at the other. Jonny s like all the rest of us, he wants to love and be loved, and as this brilliant novel shows, that's a dangerous way to be when you're inside the machine.'' --Ben Fountain, New York Times bestselling author
''I'd wanted to go slowly and read The Love Song of Jonny Valentine over the course of a week or two, but once Jonny's voice got into my head, I was hooked and kept picking it back up, and so I ended up on the last page, reading that final, amazing sentence, at like three in the morning. This novel is a serious accomplishment . . . America as we know it, with laughs on every page, but also a book that doesn't take one cheap shot . . . And at the swirling core, you have an eleven-year-old boy trapped by his fame and trying to figure out how to move through the world, and who wants nothing more than to find his father. This is a book with a runaway narrative engine, tremendous ambitions, and an even bigger heart. I do not lie when I tell you: Teddy Wayne is as good a young writer as we have.'' --Charles Bock, New York Times bestselling author
''What is most searing about Teddy Wayne's splendid new novel is not his trenchant social criticism, nor the itchy, unsettling way that he makes tragedy entertaining, but that in the bubble of celebrity which comprises little Jonny Valentine's whole world, at times the only differences between the savvy, drug-taking, lonely adults and the savvy, drug-taking, lonely kid himself are his outsized talent, and their avarice plus wrinkles.'' -- Helen Schulman, New York Times bestselling author
''The Love Song of Jonny Valentine is a novel of ferocious wit and surprising poignancy. Teddy Wayne has written a pitch-perfect anthem for our surreal American Dream, a power ballad for the twenty-first-century unhappy family, an epic ode to the fleeting glory of fame . . . Adored by his fans, enslaved by the music industry, Jonny Valentine navigates the high-stakes game of celebrity while secretly longing for the love of his missing dad. And we, in turn, long for him to hold on to his soulful spirit, his baby chub, his cri de coeur, his 'major vulnerabilities.' A deeply entertaining novel with humor and heart to spare.'' --Amber Dermont, New York Times bestselling author
''In Jonny Valentine, Teddy Wayne has created a vivid and achingly authentic portrait of an adolescent prodigy trying to make sense of a world from which he's been kept mostly separate. Wry, witty, and genuinely moving, this is a novel that delves into the private longings of a public figure, exposing the sometimes dark and often ridiculous inner workings of a life in show business. The Love Song of Jonny Valentine is absorbing and beautifully written - and also a ton of fun to read.'' -- Aryn Kyle, New York Times bestselling author
''Provocative and bittersweet . . . Jonny is such an engaging, sympathetic character that his voice carries the novel . . . A very funny novel when it isn't so sad, and vice versa.'' -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
''Jonny's voice is disarming and real . . . Wayne truly makes the most of his material and comes up with a book that is both entertaining and insightful . . . Includes one of the most complicated portrayals of the mother-son relationship since Room.'' --BookPage

About the Author

TEDDY WAYNE, the author of Kapitoil, is the winner of a 2011 Whiting Writers' Award and a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He writes regularly for the New Yorker, New York Times, Vanity Fair, McSweeney's, and other publications. He lives in New York.