Five Times Lucky - by P David Temple (Paperback)

About the Book

A newly famous woman attempts to seize control of her life in this comic novel.

Book Synopsis

In Five Times Lucky, an intrepid traveler gets more than her share of tabloid celebrity. In this fast-moving comedy by P. David Temple, the quest for fame has no boundaries...but celebrity has its downside.

Five Times Lucky follows ex-actress BunnyLee Welles, who returns to Los Angeles for her best friend's wedding and finds that she is instantly recognizable. From the customs officer to the baggage clerk to the Lyft driver, everyone knows her single-dimple smile. They mimic her. They take selfies with her. They hand her unsolicited film scripts. In the four years she has been traveling abroad, her sole commercial role for Dial-a-Denture has recently become an online meme. Like it or not, BunnyLee is now famous.

It seems like everyone BunnyLee crosses paths with is seeking fame. An old boyfriend from college is using material gleaned from their former relationship to further his stand-up career. Another college acquaintance, a burgeoning local TV news reporter, trades on her friendship with BunnyLee for a scoop on the evening news. BunnyLee seeks shelter in the rambling estate of Buck LeGrande, an aging Hollywood heartthrob whose own career has been derailed by a years-old altercation with Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street. He can relate to BunnyLee's plight as others in his sphere-a duplicitous chauffeur, a social-climbing cook-vie for a piece of his fame. As much as BunnyLee strives to keep things platonic, romance is a snake lurking in the underbrush.

BunnyLee borrows Buck's vintage Mustang and hits the road with her new puppy on what begins an odyssey through a culturally conflicted modern-day America. Along the way, car trouble leads to her rescue by an injured professional wrestler whose career is a cautionary tale about trading everything meaningful in life for the chance to bask in the limelight of fame.

Review Quotes

"An engaging tale about celebrity, love, and the search for one's place in the world. Temple's prose is exact and full of color, capable of both madcap humor and wistful lyricism." - Kirkus Review.

"A delightful and skilled writer, I enjoyed every moment. The whole thing went down as easily as a glass of bubbly." - Mitchell Levin, Senior Script Analyst, DreamWorks.

"P. David Temple's tour de force, Five Times Lucky, is a delicious comic odyssey through the underside of Hollywood's fame game. With a sure hand for deft, cinematic prose and a remarkable ear for dialogue, Temple has crafted vivid characters that are some-times seedy and always hilarious." -Jerelle Kraus, The New York Times, Art Director

"The biggest take-away for the editorial reader is simply how very timely this story is. On the nose, up to the very second of a part of the culture that is being played to perfection in this story. BunnyLee engages the reader from the first sentence. Wonderful story, well told." -Scott Wolven, The Writer's Hotel, Editor