Introducing The Simp

In a recent piece for Lithub, Roshan Sethi writes about picking up William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair in the summer of 2024, when he was already upset by how Hollywood was treating him. Sethi, a film director and writer, felt slighted by the post-2020 racial reckoning backlash, and he was looking for somewhere to direct his frustration. (Relatable!) Thackeray’s 19th century classic turned out to be just the vehicle, in great part, says Sethi, because of the book’s cover, which featured an illustration of British elites tumbling down a staircase. Those elites reminded Sethi of the elites in Hollywood, and the comparison inspired him to start writing his debut novel using Thackeray’s as a guide:The day after I started reading Vanity Fair, I started writing The Simp. I had no outline or plot in mind. I was simply adapting this 200 year old book. I wrote the modern Becky Sharp as Raj, an Indian actor, an impoverished inveterate hustler trying to navigate an elite Hollywood society.…