TELEVISION Walks the Tightrope Between Reality and Performance

In Television, Lauren Rothery’s debut novel, the narrative switches between the interior monologues of Hollywood hopefuls, mainly Verity and Helen. Forever friends, sometimes lovers, they come to Los Angeles separately but for the same reason: to escape from somewhere else. Hollywood, however, is not sentimental about origins; it is a sorting machine. Some make it. Some don’t. Verity makes it—spectacularly. Helen does not.

Verity is, we are told, very attractive. Helen, less so. The question that haunts Verity is whether it’s his tremendous good looks or his talent that accounts for the difference in their success. In an attempt to balance the cosmic ledger, to correct what he sees as the unfairness of his outsized success, Verity creates a lott...