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"Be sure to slather on the sun-screen if you read Psycho Ex at the beach, since its L.A.-hipster characters, tales of twisted love and whip-smart wisecracks will keep you glued to your sand chair.... Summer reading doesn't get more fun than this." 4 Stars --People Magazine July 12, 2004
"Unique, darkly funny and ruthlessly revealing, The Psycho Ex Game is like a rock and roll 'He Said, She Said.' Markoe and Prieboy are like a f---ed-up Tracy and Hepburn. A love story for anyone who ever wrecked his or her own love story."
--Michael Patrick King, Executive Producer, Sex and the City
Powells.com Staff Pick
You know how there's two sides to every story? The Psycho Ex Game, co-written by humor goddess Merrill Markoe and music god Andy Prieboy, gives both sides of a budding friendship (could it be more?) between two citizens of LA. The story turns on an email contest between the two main characters - a writer and a musician - to see who has had the crazier ex. It's funny, smart, and engaging.
--Recommended by Beth Lyons, Powells.com
"Anyone familiar with her writing for television already knows that Merrill Markoe is one of the great comedic voices of her generation; acerbic, ironic, cynical and sweet, she's been a hero of mine since I was in junior high. Those lucky enough to have caught his now-classic show White Trash Wins Lotto already know the angry, sardonic brilliance of Andy Prieboy. In this new comic novel -- rich, complex, layered, epic, pissed off, hilarious, heartbroken, and hip as hell -- never have either of their voices been funnier, darker, or more hopeful. This is an incredible story."
--Todd Hanson, Writer, The Onion, America's Finest News Source
"a hip, hilarious, he-said, she-said exchange between two fascinating, if not entirely well-balanced, minds." An A rating. --
The Rockey Mountain News July 2, 2004
"If you're wondering who comes out the winner in Grant and Lisa's competition--well, the answer is nobody. After all, it's the kind of contest that even if you win, you lose. That's part of what makes the book successful: the way it heaps disappointment on both of its protagonists without a promise of happily-ever-after. The feeling of hopefulness it somehow manages to impart anyway comes from their sense of humor--and from the creativity that's spawned by their friendship.
"I was hoping, hoping, hoping, through the craziness of the writing process, that people would get into this book," Markoe says.
And people are. So at least there's a happy ending for you."
--Katie Haegle, Philadelphia Weekly
The Psycho Ex Game
by Merrill Markoe and Andy Prieboy
From the Psycho Ex Game Official Handbook:
All points in Psycho Ex Game are self-awarded by the narrator.
Points are given based on a personal value system of
humiliation, horror, self-debasement and pain endured.
A sharp, witty novel --written in alternating he said/she said chapters --about an unlikely couple's growing involvement as they compete to answer the universal question: "Whose ex was crazier, yours or mine?"
The Los Angeles Times hailed Merrill Markoe¼s debut novel, It¼s My F***ing Birthday, as funny in a sly, true, painful way. In The Psycho Ex Game she partners singer/songwriter Andy Prieboy for a combative relationship story that encompasses the top and the bottom rungs of show business.
Bells don't immediately ring when Lisa, a writer meets Grant a veteran rock musician, backstage at one of his shows but they do exchange e-mail addresses. Soon after they begin an online correspondence that blossoms into what they call the Psycho Ex Game--a frisky storytelling contest designed to establish which of them has experienced greater suffering in the name of love. Story for story, each accumulates points for humiliation, degradation, and complicity in the rationalizing of psychotic behavior. And as the game continues, each realizes that their exchanges are offering them an intimacy missing in their offline lives.
Award-winning writer Merrill Markoe and musician Andy Prieboy have written together a bitingly sarcastic novel to be published by Villard: THE PSYCHO EX GAME (Publication Date: June 29, 2004; $24.95). Speaking in alternating Ïhe said/she said chapters, Lisa and Grant tell of their meeting and how their relationship evolves as they become engaged in a scorching game of storytelling and one-upsmanship who can score the most points by baring their own personal tales of suffering and humiliation at the hands of former lovers: The Psycho-Ex Game. And with the big score comes the kicker: after sharing so much intimate information, how do you walk away?
Shot through with the acerbic humor of Merrill Markoe and the mordant observations that have made Andy Prieboy a distinctly literate voice in rock, THE PSYCHO EX GAME is a hilarious dissection of injuries sustained on the front lines of romance.
About the Authors:
Emmy Award-winning writer Merrill Markoe has authored three books of humorous essays and the novel It¼s My F-ing Birthday. She has been a radio host and a television correspondent, and has written for television, movies and a delightful assortment of publications. She lives in Los Angeles, if you can call that living.
Andy Prieboy has written and recorded with Wall of Voodoo and produced three solo albums. His musical, White Trash Wins Lotto, is currently in pre-production for a 2005 run. Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Concrete Blonde are among the artists who have covered his songs. He lives in Los Angeles.
THE PSYCHO EX GAME * Merrill Markoe and Andy Prieboy * Villard
Publication Date: June 29, 2004 * $24.95
PRAISE FOR
IT"S MY F---ING BIRTHDAY
by Merrill Markoe
"Funny in a sly, true, painful way."
-Los Angeles Times
On-target, poignant A study of one woman¼s evolution from passivity to self-esteem.
-Washington Post
"Bickering parents, weird sex, and ambiguous floral arrangements pave the road to enlightenment in legendary comedy writer Merrill Markoe's first novel. Along the way she reminds readers that the heart is a fragile little critter. And sometimes the best we can do is make a wish and blow those candles out."
--O Magazine
"Witty! [Markoe] finds humor in those not-so-Kodak moments. So will you."
- Glamour
"A dark, witty story about one woman¼s attempt to find the right man and not kill her mother."
- Talk
"Witty! Markoe's very funny and astute about women's insecurities."
- Hartford Courant
"Hilarious! a side-splitting novel. Its combinations of Bridget Jones-type wit and LA panache position it to be a best-seller and a major motion picture."
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"The perfect gift for all women who face birthdays with grim determination, pepper spray and sharp fingernail files. Markoe teaches the joy of laughing through pain and bubbling through toil and trouble."
- Publishers Weekly
"Perfect for curling up with at the end of the day when we long for the company of good friends but they've all gone to bed. You know, after watching the Late Show."
- St. Petersburg Times
"[Markoe] brings her crisp, gratifyingly feminist sense of humor and flair for satirizing the lives of frustrated singles to an irresistible first novel."
- Booklist
"Laugh-out-loud debut fiction. Classy stuff that deserves tons of flowers from dazed and satisfied readers.Ó
- Kirkus Reviews
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