A breakneck comic tour-de-force set in 1980s Hollywood, about one man's quest to get his hands on a box of bawdy love letters Elliot Weiner is a historian with a passion for Morris dancing and Warren Harding, 'the shallowest President in history'. After Weiner receives a research grant to write a book on Harding's tumultuous life, he gets wind of a trunkful of the twenty-ninth president's billets-doux, rumoured to be guarded by his ancient mistress on her declining Hollywood Hills estate. There's no depth to which he won't stoop, no moral boundary he won't traverse and no preposterous scheme he won't machinate to get at them. First published in 1983, My Search for Warren Harding garnered immediate acclaim and was described by the Los Angeles Review of Books as 'a classic picaresque novel in the tradition of Cervantes'; Robert Plunket's original fans included Amy Sedaris, Larry David and Madonna. In this deliciously bonkers novel, The Aspern Papers meets A Confederacy of Dunces meets Sunset Boulevard meets pure, glorious, hair-raising farce.

Details

ISBN13: 9780241707999
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 304
Edition:
Publication Date: 06 May 2025
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x12.9(L)x1.7(W)226
Weight (gm): 226

Author Biography

Robert Plunket (Author) Robert Plunket was born in Greenville, Texas, in 1945, but raised in Havana and Mexico City. After college he moved to New York and became Mr Chatterbox, the gossip columnist for Sarasota Magazine. His has published two novels, My Search for Warren Harding (1983) and Love Junkie (1992). He is currently retired and lives in a trailer park in Englewood, Florida, where he enjoys collecting old quilts and raising succulents from scratch.

Reviews

One of the most original comic novels of the past half century * The New Yorker *
There’s a subversive thrill to reading this novel... Elliot Weiner is a snob. He’s vain, shallow and shameless. He’s lazy and untrustworthy. He’s a bitch too, quick to make an acid observation. And these are just some of the reasons why he’s a brilliant narrator. Who wouldn’t want to spend 300 pages in his company? * The Times *
My Search for Warren Harding is essentially a picaresque novel and, as in all such works, we meet with grotesques. I am reminded of Lolita. A nasty person with a fancy prose style teaches us about America... Weiner, in the grand tradition of the comic unreliable narrator, reveals himself to be a half-insane monster... That’s the thing about a certain kind of bitchiness: it’s rarely dull... Exquisite * The Spectator *
A satirical evisceration of the Hollywood celebrity scene... a madcap plot, and a host of vivid supporting characters * The Herald *
Most of all what My Search for Warren Harding conveys is a devil-may-care, not-giving-a-damn energy that makes no concessions to taste, simply offers its manic vision to the reader and says “take it or leave it”. I’ll take it * The Critic *