My Search for Warren Harding

One of the most original comic novels of the past half century

One of the most original comic novels of the past half century

There’s a subversive thrill to reading this novel... Elliot Weiner is a snob. He’s vain, shallow and shameless. He’s lazy and untrustworthy. He’s a bitch too, quick to make an acid observation. And these are just some of the reasons why he’s a brilliant narrator. Who wouldn’t want to spend 300 pages in his company?

My Search for Warren Harding is essentially a picaresque novel and, as in all such works, we meet with grotesques. I am reminded of Lolita. A nasty person with a fancy prose style teaches us about America... Weiner, in the grand tradition of the comic unreliable narrator, reveals himself to be a half-insane monster... That’s the thing about a certain kind of bitchiness: it’s rarely dull... Exquisite

A satirical evisceration of the Hollywood celebrity scene... a madcap plot, and a host of vivid supporting characters

Most of all what My Search for Warren Harding conveys is a devil-may-care, not-giving-a-damn energy that makes no concessions to taste, simply offers its manic vision to the reader and says “take it or leave it”. I’ll take it

Robert Plunket (Author)
Robert Plunket was born in Greenville, Texas, in 1945, but raised in Havana and Mexico City. After college he moved to New York and became Mr Chatterbox, the gossip columnist for Sarasota Magazine . He has published two novels, My Search for Warren Harding (1983) and Love Junkie (1992). He is retired and lives in a trailer park in Englewood, Florida, where he enjoys collecting old quilts and raising succulents from scratch.