Every struggling "serious" novelist fills with indignation (and more than little jealously) when he sees Jimmy Stewart's poetry and Shirley MacLaine's philosophy of life outselling his own profound book. Well, if you can't beat em, join 'em: become a celebrity yourself.

That's the premise of The Big Hype,the latest novel from Avery Corman, author of Oh, God! and Kramer vs. Kramer. Paul Brock is a successful script writer who's fed up with Hollywood and with his lack of creative control over his scripts. No more movies-of-the-week about Lyme disease--he's going to finish his novel. As he soon discovers, however, the publishing business is just as hype-ridden as Hollywood. No one is willing to take a chance to Brock; they'll publish his book, but won't go out of their way to promote it or pay him much.

As Brock sees his dreams of quitting become more unrealistic, he turns to his boyhood pal Mel, who is now a musicbusiness mogul with a gift for packaging anyone as a superstar. Mel comes up with the insanely effective idea of turning Brock into a star so that his books will sell.

Talk about loss of creative control: Brock is packaged as the "Balladeer of the Middle Class" and pressed into service writing songs about ordinary family life. Can't sing? No problem. After coaching by voice teachers, physical fitness instructors, and media handlers, Brock can not only sing but conduct himself impeccably on talk shows and fill Radio City Music Hall. His books sell by the millions, and Brock, slightly dazed, is more or less content.

Sounds improbable? Don't worry. This is a light and funny book, not day of the Locust.The unlikely, gigantic scale of Brock's fame (and the packaging that led to it) is part of the humor, as are the broad parodies of Hollywood life. But there's just enough seriousness in it to make you wonder whether things really do happen just as the book suggests. Perhaps it's not as exaggerated as it seems: people really are easy to fool, and there have never been so many professional foolers as there are now. As the media become technically more sophisticated, the possibilities for manipulation increase.

And frame, as the book suggests, is frequently a matter of the masses following a fad that someone behind the scenes has set in motion. After all, if no one had put the idea in our heads that he was a sex symbol, who would be impressed with an asexual, surgically reconstructed rock star like Michael Jackson?

Though it avoids pessimism, the book ends by questioning the possibility of escaping from the celebrity world with one's integrity intact. When Brock decides to quit the pop-star scene and publicly admits that it was all a big hype, Mel turns his retirement into the biggest hype of all, putting Brock's retirement speech into a music video. "The integrity of that...it's why they love him," Mel says to Brock about his fans. "And we've also lined up a TV special, "The Big Hype'...all about how the act was manufactured. Honest television. Television that informs."

The media finally becomes its own biggest celebrity, confessing and absolving itself in an orgy of publicity the way rock stars write tell-all autobiographies. But none of it is really taken seriously. Mel isn't an exploitative mogul, but instead a madcap guy who's a good friend to Brock. And Brock himself is tempted to regard this media catastrophe as half windfall, half big joke. What the hell, it's only a show. And the show must go on. In fact, it never ends.

The Big Hype

by Avery Corman

Simon and Schuster

$19.00