The first thing that is striking thing about Chuck Palahniuk’s new novel Tell-All is how slender it is. To be fair to Palahniuk, he has managed to produce a new book almost every year for about the last decade, and while that’s no mean feat for a writer, reading Palahniuk always leaves me wanting to read more.

Tell-All is a simple story of Old Hollywood and the life of Katherine Kenton, a cross between Marlene Dietrich and Bette Davis, as told through the eyes of Hazie, her personal assistant and ‘surrogate spine’. Kenton falls for Webster Carlton Westward III, a handsome younger man who comes to try for her affections. Seeing her whole life and livelihood under threat, Hazie, creates a fake manuscript that she passes off as the scurrilous hagiography Westward intends to publish after killing her. She then has to be seen to work with her employer to thwart Westward’s diabolical schemes, which in turn drives a wedge between Katherine and Webster, and brings Hazie closer to her employer. This in turn forces Hazie to forge ever-more elaborate plans for Kenton’s demise, which she has to pass off as Westward’s blueprint for fame.

The story, though well told, lurches in an ever more cumbersome and obvious way towards a final, and ultimately predictable, conclusion. Palahnuik has also created a rod for his own back by peppering the text with repeated name-dropping of stars of a similar magnitude to Kenton. The point he’s making is established early on – fame is transitional and set to fade fast, unless you surround yourself with those in the same situation and become a self-aggrandising and self-perpetuating circle of fame. This wears very thin after the first few chapters and rather than aiding the narrative in any way, merely serves to slow the reader down and delay the gratification in what is fundamentally a short story padded out to fill a book.

Palahnuik makes a good point about the notion of celebrity, while it may have been invented in the 1930s, and perfected in the 1950s, it is as insidious now as it was then. In recent years, our celebrities have gone from being glamourous, unobtainable and aspirational, to being low-rent, vapid and invariably winners of TV talent shows, destined to be replaced by the next year’s crop within a few short months.

Sustaining literary greatness is difficult, if not impossible, and this book will be looked on favourably compared the rest of Palahnuik’s output, though it does not measure up to the greatness some of his recent work. Although enjoyable Tell-All serves merely to bridge the gap until Palahnuik’s next annual offering.

Tell-All was previously reviewed on Bookgeeks by Frances Moloney.

Reviewed by Scott Morris

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