The Virtuous Ones
by Christopher Stoddard
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Pub Date 22 Sep 2022 | Archive Date 18 Sep 2022
ITNA | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
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Description
Meet the Mad Men of the 21st Century.
In this work of fiction, Pure Creative, an ad agency, has set its sights on rap star Markus in hopes of cinching one of the most profitable collaborations ever: turning the viral music video for his number-one song “Holy War”—in which he ventures into poor neighborhoods to make broad gestures of generosity—into an ad campaign for their most lucrative client, the telecommunications giant Telco.
Pure’s client services lead, Ella, is dealing with other challenges. She's struggling with deteriorating judgment and frayed nerves caused not only by work overload but by several traumatic events in her past. As a result, she's mismanaging the Telco account, putting her career, and the entire Holy War project, at risk. As if that weren’t enough, an onslaught of bad press about Markus’s very politically incorrect private life will begin to threaten Pure's squeaky clean image as the “woke-est” agency in the world. Despite these hurdles standing between Pure Creative and success, its creative director, Link, has convinced himself that this campaign will finally give him a chance to do some real good in the world. Why, then, can’t he shake the nagging feeling of being an imposter?
In this Swiftian, often comical narrative, Stoddard satirizes the newest and perhaps most manipulative weapon of today’s advertising industry: branded content that promotes progressive social values—and all for the “pure” and unadulterated goal of… sheer profit.
A Note From the Publisher
Primary Edition: $18.00 | Paperback | 978-0997643206
Additional Edition: $9.99 | E-Book | 978-0997643237
Advance Praise
PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR’S WORK
“The Virtuous Ones recalls Didion and Ellis with its offhanded blunt descriptions, on-point brand inventions and breathtaking one-liners... ”
—Michael Carroll, Author of Stella Maris: And Other Key West Stories
“A depressingly beautiful portrait of the metropolitan human.”
—Kirkus on At Night Only
"Stylish, despairing, enviable...”
—Edmund White on At Night Only
“At Night Only looks unrelentingly for a way out of fake love, fake relationships, and fake identities.”
—The Paris Review on At Night Only
“Stoddard's The Virtuous Ones is a razor-sharp insider's look at today's world of young professionals in L.A. advertising and their transgressive lifestyles... reminds me of reading the literary Brat Pack novels of the 1980s for the first time."
—Lisa Howorth, Author of Summerlings
Marketing Plan
TBA Readings in New York, Los Angeles, & Other Cities
Featured at the 2022 Brooklyn Book Festival
TBA Readings in New York, Los Angeles, & Other Cities
Featured at the 2022 Brooklyn Book Festival
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780997643206 |
| PRICE | US$18.00 (USD) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
ria g, Reviewer
This book is a lot of things -- some of it 'good' and some of it 'bad'. But that all depends on where your morals lie. The satire in this deals with topics most people are afraid to acknowledge, including the now-ever present need to have a desirable depiction of ourselves on social media. The characters in this book commit morally despicable acts in order to achieve this, or consider these morally despicable acts before ever doing them. The writing style is similar to that of Brett Easton Ellis, with very blatant and witty descriptions of actions that can be disconcerting. It writes our reality into something seemingly very dystopian. It definitely isn’t for everyone to consume, but it does pose a question over morals and how we apply them to ourselves in real life. Regardless, this proved to be a quick and reflective read that was overall very enjoyable.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
Mike D, Reviewer
I’m the first to rate and review this book. Nice. Or noooice. So here we go…
The Virtuous Ones are anything but. That’s the satire of it, presumably. They are vain, vapid, vile, vicious, and venomous.
They are also a very specific class of people – famous and fame-adjacent, moneys, groomed to the nines, and career-driven.
And yes, none of the fame is deserved and none of their careers really matter in the grand scheme of things, but hey, that’s modern fame-obsessed, social media-addled world for you.
There’s a rapey (and not even the only rapey character in here) rapper and his posse and a PRM firm hired to manage him and his new charity-base show.
Chapter by chapter the narrative alternates to feature different players in this elaborate and ultimately vacuous performance. So it’s mostly one of those terrible people doing terrible things to each other sort of satires. But it does a good job of reflecting many aspects of a current zeitgeist, mainly that of the undeserved fame and its repercussions.
Sex scandals, race scandals, social media scandals - all sorts of things this story doesn’t shy away from.
And, because it has to deal with a PR firm and moral ambiguity, the comparisons to Mad Men are inevitable. Although the two are really very different beasts.
This book isn’t a sort of LOL satire, it’s subtler, darker. Lots of ugliness here you can’t joke away. So maybe not for everyone, but an interesting and a well-written book. And such a quick read. I went through it in one sitting 1:30 to 4:30 or so. This may not be a book to love per se, since it is so unlovely by design, but it's certainly a sort of thing one can appreciate. Thanks Netgalley.
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