Book description
Phil Camp has a problem. Not the fact that he wrote a parody of a
self-help book (
Where Can I Stow My Baggage?
) that the world took seriously and that became an international
bestseller, or that he wrote the book under a phony name, Marty Fleck,
and the phony name became a self-help guru overnight. Phil cannot be
Marty Fleck. He can barely be himself.
No, Phil's problem is that he has been walking with a limp for nine
months. Phil is in constant pain, yet there is nothing physically
wrong with his body that would cause such agony. This problem leads
him to the controversial Dr. Samuel Abrun, a real doctor who wrote a
real self-help book (The Power of "Ow!") that made
thousands of people pain-free.
So what happens when the self-help fraud meets the genuine item?
Does he get better? Can he hobble out of his own way to help himself?
Most important, can the reader make it through fifty pages without
thinking, Wait a minute. Is that a twinge I feel in my lower back
or just gas?
Phil embraces Abrun's unorthodox psychogenic theories passionately
but manages to save some passion for Abrun's daughter, Janet, herself
a doctor who has her own theories about, and remedies for, chronic
pain. If all this weren't enough, Phil tries to delve further into his
past with his unconventional psychotherapist, the Irish Shrink, even
if it means revealing dark secrets he never remembered telling him the
first two or three times. To top it all off, Phil confronts his alter
ego's nemesis, right-wing radio blowhard Jim McManus, only to find out
they share a common enemy -- the same family.
Like Carl Hiassen and Larry David, author Bill Scheft understands
that the best humor is always excruciating. That fits the story of
Everything Hurts and its lesson: Pain is the ultimate
teacher. By the end, Phil Camp, the self-proclaimed "self-help
fraud," turns out to be the real thing. And the real thing turns
out to be flawed and confused, but hopeful. In other words, human.
“Pain is king and laughter is his fool. . . . The
book achieves a subtle poignancy.”
-Chicago Sun-Times
Bill Scheft, a 15-time Emmy-nominated writer for David
Letterman, is the author of two previous novels, The Ringer and
Time Won't Let Me, which was a finalist for the 2006 Thurber
Prize for American Humor. He has also written for the The New
Yorker, The New York Times, Esquire and Sports
Illustrated. He lives in New York City with his wife, comedian
Adrianne Tolsch.
