Late Fame

Ed Saxberger, a post office worker, lives in obscurity in downtown Manhattan where he has resided since moving from Pennsylvania to join the bohemian art scene fifty years ago. Ed’s life consists of work and playing pool at a nearby bar with working class friends around his age. He avoids calls from his sister, listening instead to her voicemails as she chronicles their brother’s medical decline and pleads with Ed to visit him.

One day Ed is approached by Meyers, a wealthy and pretentious NYU grad who has become a fervent admirer of Ed since coming across Way Past Go, a book of poems Ed published in the late 1970s. Meyers shared Way Past Go with “The Enthusiasm Society”, a group of wealthy young writers that Meyers ostensibly leads. Meyers tells Ed that the Enthusiasm Society have all become massive fans of his work. Flattered and curious, Ed accepts Meyers’ invitation to meet them.

Introduced as “Saxberger”, Ed is quickly enamored by the attention he receives from the group, especially the flirtatious actress Gloria. The group plans to host a reading and at Meyers’ urging Ed agrees to compose an original poem, to be read by Gloria, as the featured performance. Meyers uses his connections to put Ed in contact with a literary agent as a “rediscovery” but Ed loses his enthusiasm when he learns the meeting was for a memoir and not to republish his previous work.

Ed struggles with writer’s block and continues to ignore his sister’s phone calls. Ed gifts Arnold, one of his working class friends, a copy of Way Past Go for his birthday. But when Arnold and the other bar patrons gently mock Ed’s past as a Bohemian poet, Ed insults them and leaves. Ed spends more time with the Enthusiasm Society. Gloria arrives at his apartment unannounced wanting to see where he writes and pretends to be Ed’s lover when Arnold visits to apologize for how he reacted to Ed’s gift. After Gloria leaves, Ed denies Arnold’s request to attend the reading. Ed later meets Gloria outside, and they take mushrooms and walk around SoHo. They kiss at a park before she takes him to a bar where she performs as a flapper era singer to a group of admiring men around Ed’s age.

The day before the reading Ed confesses to the Enthusiasm Society he hasn’t written a single word of his new poem. Angry and panicked, the group decides that one of Ed’s previous poems will be performed instead. Ed visits Gloria unannounced and overcomes her protests to visit her upstairs. A hesitant and nervous Gloria, without makeup and no longer adopting her actress persona, begs Ed to leave. A grumpy man arrives and enters the apartment. Gloria insists Ed is just a friend and she and the man have a tense argument out of Ed’s hearing. Gloria insists Ed must leave but he protests that he’s worried for her safety. Ed leaves after giving Gloria a copy of Way Past Go to read from the next day.

At the reading, the Enthusiasm Society and Ed are in a panic when Gloria is not there. Gloria arrives in a dramatic new persona as a glamorous, fainting, and drug addled actress where she is doted upon by the group. Despite her persona, Gloria dramatically performs an original monologue written by one of the society members to wide applause by the crowd. At the end of the reading when the time to read Ed’s work arrives, Gloria, possibly feigning, is passed out on the couch. With no other choice Ed is forced to read his own work to the crowd. He reads a long poem that reflects on his experience when he first moved to NYC and an unrequited love that mimics his experience over the past few weeks. The poem is extremely well received and the society crowns Ed with laurels. After the reading, Gloria asks Ed to inform the boys she has accepted a role in The Winter’s Tale at a reputable theatre in Minneapolis and will be leaving. At his home, Ed listens to a voicemail from his sister who reveals his brother has died.

Later, the Enthusiasm Society read reviews that are largely negative except for Gloria and Ed’s contributions. The group erupts in argument and dissolves after they learn Meyers used his influence to place reviews and even wrote one himself in which he had nothing positive to say. Ed leaves but is followed by the group’s youngest member, Winn. Winn asks Ed to review his work and tell him if it’s any good. Ed tells Winn he shouldn’t hang his self-worth on other people but Winn is insistent Ed’s fame and influence means his opinion matters. Winn then reveals he never read Way Past Go, nor did any other member of the Enthusiasm Society except Meyers. The group took Meyers’ insistence of Ed’s fame and influence at face value. Ed tells Winn he will read Winn’s work when Winn reads his and heads into the bar to play pool.