The Simp: A Novel Without A hero
Drawing the curtain back on an elite Hollywood family as seen through their employee’s eyes. A fascinating story full of intrigue and conflict, release and retribution.
I first wanted to narrate this book from Simon & Schuster because of:
Its title. The Simp. It’s a very satisfying name to say with a strong voice with hints of derision and bemusement. The thought of this made me chuckle - to say the title in the most un-simp-like voice.
The truth behind it. Chapter 1 of the book opens with a ridiculously demanding and exacting job description (paying $45,000) posted by a Hollywood family - and this was based on an actual job advertisment in real life, also bizarre, that the author came across. The story that follows through the book is not true in itself, and the link to reality sets it up deliciously.
Personally, as someone who grew up watching Hollywood film/TV, was enamoured by much of the media generated around that space, and was once on a path towards being someone who’d aspire to be in the thick of it (just as the central protagonist), I had plenty of reasons to be interested.
The Simp is the story of Raj, a somewhat gifted but certainly overlooked actor in North Hollywood, as he moves around the Hollywood acting elite, dodging around the outbursts of their inner conflict and sometimes getting a direct hit from those conflicts. Definitely an unreliable narrator, put in challenging situations, and doing anything he can to survive. The author Roshan Sethi, in addition to being a practising oncologist, is a director of multiple TV shows and films, and he has the access to know exactly what he’s writing about as well as a path to detaching from it.
A novel without a hero… but will there be a villain?
Vocally, there was a nice range here. Raj is trying to suppress his Indian accent, the Hollywood family are American, and there’s a marvellous leonine older mentor, Anthony, who I loved giving a boomy yet gentle voice to. For the first time, I was able to use a real-life person to use as a baseline for a voice in this book, which was something of a thrill as well!
Back to the story:
Taking place in post-2020, with the political backdrop of the time, the novel is pretty incisive in many ways - at least I thought so. I’ve never been to Hollywood, let alone lived there. And following this book, I’m not sure I’ll ever want to. It’s not doom and gloom, oh-goodness-isn’t-everyone-dreadful, but the narrator (not the protagonist) is rather consistent when reflecting on the industry in that period, making stark observations and crushing verdicts, which appear to match real-life timelines. If you’re interested in this space, this may well be an intriguing tale for you also.
Hollywood has been described by those living there as a really odd place, and there are many accounts far more florid. It seems it takes a very specific personality to flourish in a place like Hollywood, else much energy will be spent in trying to keep yourself isolated at will while you remain close enough to interact with it. But as this story tells… that isn’t really possible either.
If anything I’m glad to have read it to dissolve any need for me to visit there, either. If a purpose to visit comes, it’ll have to be essential to be there. Otherwise, I’m very happy to be on the other side of the curtain, having had this glimpse under it. It remained with me for some time, and I wondered how much of it has indeed been true… and continues to be.