Louis CK is publishing a novel. Simon & Schuster is publishing it.
The once cancelled comedian calls “Ingram” a “dramatic story” and “not particularly funny.”
The novel is coming on November 11th. Louis CK is reading the audio version but he says he hasn’t done it yet, and he’s nervous.
He jokes: “The price for Ingram will be $1 million per copy. I know that sounds like a lot, but my thinking is that this way, we only need to sell one book to have great success.  Okay—that’s a joke. The price is a normal book price.”Â
From Louis’s description, the novel doesn’t seem autobiographical. He was born to people of means in Washington DC. They moved to his father’s home in Mexico until Louis was 7. His bio says he only spoke Spanish until they moved to tony Newton, Mass, where Louis went to high school.
During the first wave of #MeToo, several women accused Louis of sexual harassment. His thriving career was destroyed, although he’s made a comeback selling out theaters for his stand up routine. He’s still considered somewhat of a pariah.
Here’s what he says, in full:
Ingram is literary fiction (I just learned that). It’s a very dramatic story. And I better confess to you this book is not particularly funny. I’m not saying you will never laugh while reading it. You will probably laugh a few times. You might even laugh a lot. If you are insane.
But essentially, Ingram is not a comedy book. It’s a literary novel. It is literally a literary novel.
Ingram is the story of a boy who lives in a very nowhere place with no one to talk to and nothing to do and very little to eat. He is forced to leave that place and go out into a chaotic, cruel, confusing, and fascinating world. He commences to do the only things left to him as options. He survives, he suffers, he learns, he wonders, cries, laughs, and he grows just as anything that doesn’t die continues to grow.
Over the last few years, I’ve been writing a lot of fiction. Mostly short stories. I don’t know if I’ll publish any of them, but I love writing them.
So, one day I got this voice of a simple but eloquent country boy in my head and I sat down to write his story. I had no idea it was going to be a book, and I had no idea what would happen to him. For many months I sat down almost every day and I would ask Ingram what happens next, and he would tell me.
And then just like that, one day, as suddenly as he had shown up, it was over. That’s Ingram.
I’m writing another novel now, by the way. It’s completely different from Ingram. Maybe I’ll publish that someday.
The experience of working with BenBella and making the book has been wonderful and educational. If I can, I’d love to keep doing it.
Well, that’s about it. I hope you buy the book. Go here if you want to preorder it. I hope you read it. I hope you like it.
