My Inflatable Friend

Trying to make your girlfriend jealous with a life-sized rubber doll might be a bad idea. A reformed hacker-turned-slacker, twenty-something Rollo Hemphill fantasizes about becoming a top-forty DJ. Unfortunately, he has more talent than ambition. He's settled for a menial job as a car jockey at "The Wuthering Palms," a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills. Proximity to all that glitz and glamour soon stirs his attraction to Felicia Ferrulo, the Sicilian hottie who works in the hotel beauty shop. When Felicia doesn't give him a nod, much less a chance, Rollo devises a desperate plan. It involves dressing up a life-sized doll to look like one of the hotel's reclusive megastar residents and conspicuously driving the fake woman around town in borrowed vehicles. Inspiring jealousy is his goal, but it quickly gets waaaaaaay out of hand. Rollo's clever scheme backfires with stunning success, causing him to fall upward with dizzying speed - as he rockets toward the stars but away from the girl of his dreams. Rollo's fumbling attempts to undo his tangled web is, by turns, pathetic and hysterically funny. My Inflatable Friend is a witty, cautionary tale about the perils of pretending to be someone you're not - and the hazards of stroking every male's most private and vulnerable part - his swelling ego! - "Fast, funny, and sufficiently out there to be banned in Pasadena. Check with your doctor before reading." - Peter Lefcourt, author of The Woody and The Manhattan Beach Project "While the entire story is built on the most unbelievable and unrealistic of scenarios, this book is not intended to aim for an award in journalism. What it is, however, is an entrée into the land of the ridiculous, and I just couldn't stop laughing. An extremely humorous, excruciatingly funny account of one poor soul as he attempts to win the heart of his beloved (whom he has never even gotten a first date with!). Hold onto your stomach because you'll be laughing so hard you won't be able to catch your breath!" - The International Review of Books "Gentlemen, this is a book for every one of us that has had a glorious, highly sexual relationship, albeit imaginary, with the most beautiful woman in the world. Unbelievably funny, unexpected, and very challenging for our boy Rollo. An entertaining read... recommended for those who like a good laugh." - Dan Whitman, Allbooks Review "Straddles the line between outright drawing-room silliness and romantic comedy... You may root for the charmingly dense Rollo." - Kirkus "Should be read aloud before large groups for maximum effect. Do not invite your wife or girlfriend." - Marvin J. Wolf, co-writer, Ladies' Night, USA Networks "Being single and on the make is tough enough when you've had some experience, even if it ended badly. But seeing poor Rollo go splat, it hurts so well when I laugh!" - Tom Blake, syndicated columnist, "Single Again," Orange County Register

"When I was in high school, my chemistry teacher approached me and asked with a sly grin, "You interested in mining?" I told him absolutely not. I was going to be a writer. Little did I suspect that he wanted to send me to a student conference on metallurgy where I could seek the fellowship of like-minded teens on a minimally supervised road-trip to the Big City. Undeterred by my abrupt negative response, he grumbled, "Well, you're interested in mining your own business, aren't you?" And he sent me anyway. Now I realize I should've listened more carefully to everything he said." ### Gerald Everett Jones is the author of the Rollo Hemphill series of comic novels, including My Inflatable Friend, Rubber Babes, and the forthcoming Farnsworth's Revenge. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton (Stone Island), F.D. Reeve (The Red Machines), and Jerzy Kozinski (The Painted Bird, Being There).