Audience Appeal

"The singer was Louise Lundy, a former soap opera star...She didn't have a pleasant or appealing voice but she was able to hit notes and had great costumes, and much of her appeal was probably due to the fact that audiences were so surprised she could carry a tune, they were willing to ignore something as insignificant as quality."

From the moving new novel by Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life (Flatiron Books, 2018), which made me burst out laughing a number of times. You can read a longer excerpt here.