So this morning's Lloyd Grove column ends by quoting the girlfriend of McCauley Culkin's father in her complaints to Us Weekly about Culkin's novel, Junior, which features a father character widely assumed to be a thinly veiled portrait of Culkin's dad. So I promptly picked up the copy of Junior that's been sitting around my desk for the last few weeks to have a look:

"One could say my father was a love man who looked out for the best interests of his family. In fact, that's what he said. But others would say that he was a cold-blooded bastard who ripped my family apart from the inside out..."

Turn the page, and a list of "the people I like the least (in no particular order)" starts with "my dad" and quickly hits upon "my dad's girlfriend(s)," with another interesting detour for people who want to play spot the real-life parallels: "Joseph Jackson." As for the rest of the book, I haven't read enough to verify whether it "makes Ethan Hawke read like Philip Roth," but I can say with some certainty that Junior likes him some Dave Eggers. Also, just a minor quibble: The Monty Python "there is no rule #6" reference is somewhat diminished by the additional lack of a rule #10.

And what does Christopher Culkin himself think? The Book Standard reports that their colleagues at Kirkus sent him an ARC to read, which he returned with a note: "I haven't a thought as to what to write about the book, and feel also that anything that I might indeed feel inclined to say would only (could only) be viewed in the light of 'Well, what do you think that he would write?'"