Blue Heaven
Joe Keenan
  • Published: 7 June 2002
  • ISBN: 9780099435044
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $24.99

Blue Heaven

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From Joe Keenan, chief scriptwriter of the award-winning Frasier TV series, comes an outrageously funny novel: an unholy cross between Armistead Maupin, P G Wodehouse and The Sopranos.

Meet Gilbert and Moira - the strangest couple to ever marry for each other's money. Living in New York in 1991 is Gilbert Selwyn, a young man possessed of boundless charm and an allergy to employment, who has devised a plan to wring a nice pile of loot from his mother's newest (and obscenely wealthy) husband.

The scheme, simply put, is to get married for the gifts. But Gilbert, who's gay, needs a fiancée... Enter Moira Finch, a demonically conniving young woman whose own mother, having recently married the Duke of Dorsetshire, will contribute richly to the couple's receipts. Enter, too, Philip Cavanagh, Gilbert's longtime friend, former lover, and highly strung Best Man. And enter, finally, the Cellinis, Gilbert's huge internecine stepfamily, whose fortune has not been amassed as innocently as Gilbert first thought, and who conform rather more closely to Italian-American stereotypes than Gilbert would like to believe. As Gilbert, Moira, and Philip struggle to keep their plot under wraps, the scams get bigger and more perilous, deceit multiplies, and a wonderfully calamitous trail leads us towards what could be the wedding of the season.
  • Published: 7 June 2002
  • ISBN: 9780099435044
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

Joe Keenan

A playwright and lyricist, Joe Keenan received his M.F.A in Musical Theatre from New York University. His musical The Times received the Richard Rodgers Development Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters as well as the Kleban Award from the Ed Kleban Foundation. His first novel, Blue Heaven – which introduced the characters of Philip Cavanaugh, Gilbert Selwyn and Claire Simmons – is also published by Arrow. Mr Keenan spent six years as a writer/producer for the television show Frasier. His work on the show earned him five Emmys and two Writers Guild Awards. He has also worked as a writer on the television series Desperate Housewives along with a number of screenplays. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mr Keenan lives in Los Angeles with his partner Gerry Bernardi.

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Praise for Blue Heaven

Blue Heaven... frothy, brilliantly coloured and packing a wicked satiric punch.

Los Angeles Magazine

Blue Heaven is a hilarious read. Quote me with pleasure.

Sir Ian McKellen

I adored it, laughing out loud on occasions as I read it at one sitting.

The Bookseller

Joe Keenan has put the ‘high’ back into high jinks... refreshingly effervescent

New York Times

Joe Keenan's first novel plunges headlong into a world of deceit, avarice and violence and it's all a scream - Keenan maintains impressive control over a wonderfully ludicrous plot-packed full of lines that are well worth memorizing - and with a finale that is staggeringly, hilariously contrived.

Time Out

Joe Keenan has put the 'high' back into high jinks. His send-ups of criminal noveaux riches are biting and dead on - and his dialogue is refreshingly effervescent.

New York Times

One of the funniest writers alive.

David Leavitt