Stay Up with Hugo Best

The main character is extremely likable, and you find yourself routing for her, and hoping she makes the right decisions. When she does not, it leaves a strange sense of disappointment, that may turn a lot of readers off. However, the disappointing decisions drive home the themes of the story, as uncomfortable as some of them may be, and they are believable.The story is surprisingly funny, and despite the imperfect actions of the main characters, the author gets her point across successfully.

Couldn't find a point to this story. June is made out to be pathetic spending time with Hugo Best at his home for a weekend. Nothing comes from the time together other then sex with an old man.

This book gets everything right: it’s an incisive look at class, youth, sexual power, fame, and the craft of writing comedy. The NY Times review of this was absolute trash, missed every point, and smacked of bitterness (luckily they quoted whole swaths of text that were very funny and I was intrigued enough to buy the book anyway). I adore June’s voice and I’m so excited to see what Somers does next.

I devoured this and then immediately re-read it. I had to give my copy away because I couldn't stop reading it, and have purchased several copies for other friends. Sharp, hilarious, poignant, introspective. Timely for the current social/political climate but also timeless in the portrayal of hero worship, sex, the search for meaning, and performance. Maybe it says something that I identified so closely with June but *Hugo Best* for me was one of the best reads of the decade.

Despite the advance praise quoted on the back cover, this book is definitely not fun or funny, it is a sad, desolate read.It is about a 29 year old, June, who has worked at at a once popular late, late show headed by her comedic youth idol that is now ending. June loved the show in her youth and finds her way to work for the show's theater and then to the bottom rung of the team. She even gets to meet her hero, the shows host, Hugo Best who sexually assaults her by grabbing her ass. She chalks it up to Hugo being Hugo and he apparently does this to all the girls. Wonderful stuff, witty and clever. While after the shows wrap Hugo randomly shows up at Junes stand-up show and asks her to join him for the weekend. She knows of his womanizing ways even a public incident with an underage girl, but the drive is chauffeured and THERE'S A POOL. So yeah! Day one they arrive and June gets black out drunk, wakes up and assumes no sex occurred because she's in a guest room in borrowed clothes. Charming. Over the next two days June meets and flirts with Hugo's estranged 17 year old son, Hugo's few friends (who all warn her to run), and Hugo's lifelong female manager who ends their professional relationship after helping to hide his sexual improprieties and advance his career to move on to other projects (who also warns June that lots of young ladies from the show have made this same trip) Very Fun. June's still not sure what to do (her M.O.) and so keeps sticking it out because old rich white male celebrity with a pool, of course. Ugh. Final day there's to be a big party but know one comes because they already know the Hugo that Erin Somers created for us. An old rich white selfish celebrity, who estranged himself from his family, and coworkers, and used his fame and money to distance himself and to have sex with young women. Well, despite overwhelming evidence of all this on Hugo's wikipedia page, (our witty/clever author justifies with the short explanation that June just didn't know why she never though to look her celebrity/hero up on-line & had only ever read his out of print autobiographical paperback to feed her infatuation). Despite all his shortcomings and no evidence of redeeming qualites June fells sorry for her old hero and they run off to his yacht where she gives Hugo oral sex and after he confesses all these sins to her with no real remorse she than has sex with him. Immediately after which he calls her a car and sends her away and never speaks to her again.The characters are one dimensional throughout to a fault. June with her upper middle class upbringing with no real talent or ambition just full of hero worship and the generic sense that she should be rich and famous too. Low on self-esteem or self-respect Hugo's power money charm nabs him another one. No one develops or learns anything except maybe Hugo gets to know he's still got it after retirement.I hated this book and I truly wish I would've have done as others had and quit earlier and saved time for a worthwhile read, but if you like reading about old famous rich white guys using their position, fame and money to make plays for their much younger female coworkers and getting away with it til they die. Erin Somers is your author and this is your book. They say write what you know so please someone introduce this author to strong women. I just thought this garbage was a thing of the past, or should be.