TITLE: The King of Pain
AUTHOR: Seth Kaufman
PUBLISHER: Sukuma Books
APPROXIMATE LENGTH: 296 pages
Recommended for fans of satire and dark comedies, as well as fans of
reality television.
GENRE
Comedy—Satire
The King of Pain
satirizes the colorful and absurd world of reality television through the eyes
of Rick Salter, one of Hollywood’s biggest players. It also presents a number
of fable-like short stories about prisons via the book-within-a-book that
Salter reads, A History of Prisons. These
stories are self-contained vignettes depicting various prison experiences from
around the world.
PACE
While not a page-turner in the
plot-driven, action-after-action sense, The
King of Pain maintains a fast pace through its smooth and efficient writing
style. In addition, the drama of the reality show Rick produces, which he
describes in summarizes bit by bit in his narrative, leaves a reader wanting
know what happens next much like a television show would. I sped through this
one in less than two days and was a little sad when it was over.
PERSPECTIVE
Rick’s chapters are told from his first
person present point of view. He tells the story as it happens. The reader
learns about his reality show through his flashbacks and memories. The short
stories he reads in A History of Prisons
are written in third person limited except for one first person narrative.
CONTENT REVIEW
Rick “the Prick” Salter is not a very
nice man. So when he wakes up alone in his big, empty mansion trapped under his
hefty home entertainment system, the only person he can count on to rescue him is
his housekeeper—who won’t arrive for at least 48 hours. With no clue as to how
he ended up in this predicament, all Rick can do is reflect on his recent
dealings with his reality show, “The King of Pain,” and read a book that’s
fallen near him, A History of Prisons
by one Seth Kaufman.
Through Rick’s story, Kaufman skewers
the world of reality television. “The King of Pain” puts its contestants
through torturous trials—starvation, sleep deprivation, physical pain—and
scores them based on their endurance and audience votes. Essentially, Rick—or
Kaufman—has dreamed up a show in which all pretenses are abandoned and reality
programming is distilled into its most basic element: drama through human
suffering. Rick is well aware that humans have always held a perverse
fascination with witnessing the travails of other people.
The stand-alone short stories that make
up the book-within-a-book A History of
Prisons read like fables, each painting a short but sweet vignette of one
person’s prison experience and highlighting elements such as karma, kismet, and
irony. The Chinese dissident who writes letters for an illiterate cellmate. The
protestor who goes on hunger strike. The African prison guard who finds the
tables turned on him.
Meanwhile, in the “real” world, Rick
has found the tables turned on him.
Through his reality show, he has become a master of torture, putting the show’s
contestants through hell in order to captivate an audience. Now he’s the one in
hell, immobilized, dehydrated, and helpless, and we, the readers, are the
audience. The image of Rick trapped under the weight of his own home
entertainment system is a powerful symbol of how consumerism and the media
imprisons us all. There’s an element of the metaphysical in this book—we, the
readers, are in a way the audience of “The King of Pain” show. As Rick outlines
each episode, one cannot help wondering how each contestant will fare. It’s
easy to be disgusted by the show’s shamelessness, and yet impossible to avoid
being pulled in.
While The King of Pain is primarily a dark roasting of the media, it’s
also an ode to books. A History of
Prisons keeps Rick sane through his predicament by transporting him to
other worlds, subtly stirring up his thoughts and making him reflect, and bringing
him company through the characters’ and author’s voices. One particularly
powerful story within A History of
Prisons depicts a futuristic culture in which everyone is absorbed in
digital devices and the entertainment industry has been killed by pirating. Two
kids, deprived of their devices, discover the lasting joys of reading and
appreciate books for their timelessness. As one of the characters points out,
gadgets die and digital entertainment is “less than air,” but all you need to
read a book is a source of light.
The King of Pain
is a book with messages, wrapped in stories and sprinkled with wit, bound
together by the themes of imprisonment and human endurance. It’s essentially
two books in one: Rick’s story and the book he reads to pass the time while
waiting for rescue. Rick is trapped physically, emotionally, and morally. When
we meet him, he’s an arrogant, full-of-himself media king who’s willing to do
anything and everything to advance his ambitions. He ignores the voices of
reason that tell him that he’s going to far, unable to see past his show’s high
ratings and what that means for revenue. But his amorality has left him lonely,
and he repeatedly expresses his regret for having allowed Amanda, the woman who
gave him the History of Prisons book,
to walk out of his life.
Eventually, unable to do anything but
think, Rick gains perspective and becomes aware of the perverse world he lives
in. Although he is undoubtedly a jerk, one cannot help but sympathize with him
as a character. His sharp first person narration brings him to life, and the
obtuseness with which he expresses himself shows that he isn’t an evil or cruel
person, simply one who has been morally compromised and distorted by the
madness of Hollywood that surrounds him. It’s easy to judge him for his
brashness, and at the same time, easy to see why he acted the way he did. Who
wouldn’t want to be the mastermind behind a hit show like “The King of Pain,”
or, for that matter, “The Biggest Loser,” “Fear Factor,” or “Survivor?”
In The
King of Pain, Kaufman has created a
brilliant satire that entertains as it sends its message. It’s unique,
original, and innovative, presenting commentary on modern culture while being darkly entertaining. I was so drawn into this book that I flew through it in less than two days, unable to put it down.
THE NITPICKY STUFF
There are a teeny, tiny, barely
perceptible number of typos.
This book contains adult language.
There are a few violent scenes, but these are described quickly and in
relatively vague detail, leaving out the gruesome parts. There are a handful of
scenes depicting sexual situations, but nothing explicit.
AUTHOR INFO
Seth Kaufman resides in Brooklyn with his wife and two children. He was the
Editorial Director of TV Guide Online, and has also been a Page Six reporter
for the New York Post. For the
last 14 years he has been an eCommerce executive. He has written for The New York Times, The New York Observer, The Daily News, Vibe, Star,
The Globe and many other
publications. The King of Pain is his
first novel.
