Plus One by Christopher Noxon

Alex Sherman-Zicklin and his wife Figgy married in Los Angeles and have been living a comfortable life with their two children.  Alex works in advertising for a nonprofit and Figgy has written treatments for several proposed series.  Then everything changes.  Figgy's latest idea is scooped up, made into a TV series, then against all odds, actually wins the Emmy.   The family is catapulted into a new lifestyle of riches and everything changes.

Suddenly, Figgy is working all the time, coming home only to collapse and rest up enough to go back.  Alex is left with all the tasks necessary to run a family and household and soon it just doesn't make sense for him to also work.  He joins the fellowship of the Plus Ones; those men whose successful wives make the money and who they rotate around like a moon around the earth.

The novel is written with a light hand, and there are many laugh out loud moments.  The Hollywood lifestyle is skewered with its depiction of an ultimate consumer culture and the liberal sensibilities that only the rich can afford.  Yet, Noxon is not just going for a cheap laugh.  His book details the ebb and flow of a long-term marriage and the constant rebalancing that any successful relationship takes to maintain.

This is a debut novel.  Christopher Noxon is not a debut author though.  He has written for publications such as Salon, GQ and the New Yorker.  He is also married to a top Hollywood writer/producer so he knows the territory he writes so entertainingly about.  The reader will be charmed by Alex and spend the novel rooting for him to win out and have a happy life.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and humorous takes on life.