Memoirs and Misinformation

Memoirs and Misinformation is a novel written by Jim Carrey and Dana Vachon. Released in 2020, it is a surrealist and satirical take on Carrey's life.

Characters[]

Jim Carrey
Nicolas Cage - within the novel, Cage and Carrey are shown to be close friends
Georgie DeBuscherrie - an actress from Iowa City who becomes soulmates with Jim Carrey
Charlie Kaufman - a screenwriter who in real life penned Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and who pens a film for Carrey involving him being possessed by the spirit of Mao Zedong within the novel
Tan Calvin - an extradimensional shape-shifting producer who usually takes the form of a champion rower killed in World War I
Anthony Hopkins - Hopkins mentors Carrey in taking the role of Chairman Mao
Helena San Vicente - a Marilyn Monroe impersonator
Eddie "Wink" Mingus - one of Carrey's managers, a former Green Beret
Al Spielman II - one of Carrey's managers, a former White House staffer
Gerry Carcharias - Carrey's chief handler at the Creative Artists Agency
Lanny Lonstein - the director of the Hungry Hungry Hippoes project, described as a millennial George Lucas and a huge fan of Jim Carrey
Sally Mae - a member of the Daughters of Anomie
Willow - a member of the Daughters of Anomie
Carla
John Travolta
Lala Hormel - TPG's partner in charge of Hollywood operations
Satchel LeBlanc - a member of TPG who works with Lala
Natchez Gushue - a fictional guru who mentors Carrey along with several other celebrities
Quentin Tarantino
Gwyneth Paltrow
Kelsey Grammer
Sean Penn
Mitchell Silvers - a producer on Oksana killed by Tan Calvin
Gary Bussey

Publisher's summary[]

"None of this is real and all of it is true." --Jim Carrey

Meet Jim Carrey. Sure, he's an insanely successful and beloved movie star drowning in wealth and privilege--but he's also lonely. Maybe past his prime. Maybe even . . . getting fat? He's tried diets, gurus, and cuddling with his military-grade Israeli guard dogs, but nothing seems to lift the cloud of emptiness and ennui. Even the sage advice of his best friend, actor and dinosaur skull collector Nicolas Cage, isn't enough to pull Carrey out of his slump.

But then Jim meets Georgie: ruthless ingénue, love of his life. And with the help of auteur screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, he has a role to play in a boundary-pushing new picture that may help him uncover a whole new side to himself--finally, his Oscar vehicle! Things are looking up!

But the universe has other plans.

Memoirs and Misinformation is a fearless semi-autobiographical novel, a deconstruction of persona. In it, Jim Carrey and Dana Vachon have fashioned a story about acting, Hollywood, agents, celebrity, privilege, friendship, romance, addiction to relevance, fear of personal erasure, our "one big soul," Canada, and a cataclysmic ending of the world--apocalypses within and without.

Plot summary[]

Prologue[]

As a heatwave spreads through Hollywood, Jim Carrey hides away in his luxury home. Weeks before, someone in Carrey's circle leaked an embarrassing video of him floating in his pool. This caused a rush of paparazzi which led to Carrey's security team installing an electric fence around his home. Now an extremely depressed Carrey watches documentaries on Netflix. He feels a strong connection to long-dead Neanderthals due to his French heritage and is strongly affected by a documentary on Pompeii.

Chapter 1 and Chapter 2[]

After the massive success of one of Carrey's movies runs out, Carrey returns to Brentwood and (while watching a show on TNT dubbed "Oksana" about Russian assassins cloned from Stalin's genes) learns of an actress named Georgie DeBuscherrie. He feels deep within his heart that Georgie is his soulmate and the two start a relationship. With Georgie in his company, Carrey attends a "night of self-discovery" hosted by Natchez Gushue with several other Hollywood figures in attendance (including Kelsey Grammer, who provides a sarcastic commentary) as a hurricane rages on in the background. Gwyneth Paltrow reveals that she relished dissecting animals while in school, Sean Penn talks about a child with cancer floating in a pool, and Nick Cage talks of leading a revolution against snake-like aliens - a vision that Grammer initially dismisses as narcissistic until Cage talks about being defeated by one of the aliens.

Chapter 3 and Chapter 4[]

Before Georgie and Carrey can tie the knot, Nick Cage hosts a Brazilian jiujitsu session with Carrey as a pretense to warn him that Georgie may not be the best match for this. During the match, Carrey convinces his friend that he truly loves Georgie. Three days later, Carrey and Georgie are married in a Melanesian ceremony held in Kelsey Grammer's house. Shortly after this, the two newlyweds attend an auction where Carrey buys a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo on the advice of Georgie. Despite their happiness, not all is well. One of the producers of Oksana is visited by an extraterrestrial producer named "Tan Calvin" who presumably begins to watch over the show. After the show ends due to network politics, Tan Calvin visits said producer and (using unearthly powers) convinces the producer to blow his own brains out.

Chapter 5[]

Several days later, Georgie finds the body of the producer. Though disturbed by the sight, she quickly forgets it (possibly thinking it was nothing more than a suicide) and begins thinking of becoming a mother - something Carrey is against. This causes the first cracks to show in their relationship. Shortly after this, one of Carrey's film projects (most likely I Love You Philip Morris) causes controversy due to its graphic content. Due to this, Carrey's image takes a hit. Though his managers try to convince Carrey to make another family entertainment film with animals in it, Carrey's next project comes from an unexpected source.

One day, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman rolls up to Carrey's house while ranting in an extremely paranoid state. Several weeks before, Kaufman (alongside Taylor Swift and artist Jeff Koons) visited China to serve as judges on the Shanghai Biennale. While there, Taylor Swift accidentally uncovered a mass grave of victims of starvation caused by Chairman Mao's regime. This inspired Kaufman to begin writing a script about the evil of Chairman Mao but also (according to his ravings) caused the Chinese government to begin stalking him and working to destroy his life. By the time Kaufman visits Carrey, he has finished at least a first draft of his script - a "comic grotesque" horror about Jim Carrey (played by himself) being possessed by the spirit of Chairman Mao.

Chapters 6 and 7[]

Carrey decides to accept Kaufman's script offer. As such, he visits Kaufman's current home (the seedy Saharan Motor Hotel) where he and Anthony Hopkins coach Carrey on emulating the soul of Mao by watching footage of victims of famines caused by Mao's regime. This coaching is interrupted by the arrival of a delivery boy (leading to an argument between Kaufman and Hopkins as the second man had hired the delivery boy hoping that he was Chinese) but while in the bathroom, Carrey feels the spirit of Mao entering his body - which worries him, as he can feel his aura (which was previously described as shining with golden light) being poisoned. Despite this, he continues to let Kaufman and Hopkins coach him while emulating Mao's gluttony until some of Hopkins' remarks make him stop. This leads to an argument that ends with Kaufman pulling out a gun and Carrey being accidentally shot in the shoulder. Despite being shot, Carrey feels more alive than he has ever felt before - which Hopkins takes as a sign that he has fully accepted the spirit of Mao.

Shortly after this, Carrey is given a pitch to star in what is essentially a theater-length commercial for Hasbro (which is dubbed a "Play-Doh Fun Factory Project"). That night, he has a dream about his family being consumed by the factory and wakes up screaming - with Georgie only watching him due to the thread of contempt in their relationship. The next day, Carrey is told about a compromising deepfaked video of himself showing his face plastered onto two lesbian women. Instead of being disturbed by this, he is fascinated with the video - though he fears being replaced by similar deepfakes. His fears are quickly forgotten once he sights an ad for fast food and he departs to fuel his consumerist desires. On returning to Kaufman and Hopkins, the two show Carrey Maoist propaganda footage to continue his training. This (along with Hopkins fueling Carrey's ego) lead Carrey to fantasize of leading a Maoist cultural revolution in which his acolytes fundamentally and violently destroy his ontological enemy - the Walt Disney Corporation.

Chapter 8[]

While Kaufman visits Taiwan to chase down funding for his project, Carrey slides further and further into the role of Mao even further. While floating in his pool Carrey decides how to strike at Disney for the first time. He creates an elaborate Chinese-style party for Georgie's fortieth birthday with Disney executives, his managers, and several Hollywood celebrities in attendance. While there - fueled by a comment from Hopkins that he is only channeling the Grinch - Carrey gives a lengthy speech on the failings of capitalism and its eventual downfall before unveiling cakes showing Mickey and Minnie Mouse impaled on spikes. The Disney executives flee while Carrey's fellow celebrities (including Gary Bussey and Quentin Tarantino - who pitches a project to Georgie while at the party) are made ecstatic by the speech. After the speech, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator named Helena performs on stage before being invited by Georgie to join her and Carrey in a hot tub and into their bedroom.

Chapter 9[]

Georgie lets Helena and Carrey continue seeing each other on the condition that she stays in character as Marilyn Monroe. Though Helena keeps to this arrangement she secretly plans to make Carrey love her and only her. After Georgie leaves to speak with Tarantino, Helena visits Carrey's house. While the two begin having sex, Helena begins to shift out of her Marilyn Monroe persona and into a new persona - Celestine. During this, Carrey realizes that he is doing something deeply wrong and tries to get Helena to leave his house. While Carrey steps out, Helena overdoses on prescription pills and is only saved by Carrey noticing her before she dies.

Meanwhile, Georgie visits a plastic surgeon before seeing Tarantino and is injected with a substance known as "Vividerm" which supposedly reverses the aging process without side effects. Unfortunately for Georgie she has an extremely rare allergic reaction to the substance. Due to the face swelling (and the drowsiness from Benadryl she takes for the allergic reaction) Tarantino ends the meeting early. Georgie returns and discovers what happened with Helena. As such, after a brief argument, she ends her relationship with Carrey.

Chapters 10 and 11[]

Due to the extremely bad press of the recent days, Carrey's managers Al and Wink - along with his "chief handler" Gerry, who "dial[s] into the meeting from the Amalfi Coast" - host a meeting to pitch Carrey a script for a movie launching a franchise over the Hungry Hungry Hippos board game. During this meeting, it is revealed that Kaufman's script was nothing more than an elaborate subterfuge by the Chinese government and that Carrey has angered a group known as the "Texas Pacific Group" (or TPG, Inc. - a real private equity firm). Along with this, Carrey shows the first signs of slipping into genuine insanity as he has a mental breakdown. After the meeting, he tries to calm down by smoking indica but this fails. His nights become haunted by horrible dreams, construction near his home, and phone calls from his dead aphasic father.

One day during these weeks of hell, Nic Cage texts Carrey asking to crash at his beach home as he has "beef with some otherworldly a-holes [sic]" after buying an expensive sword in an auction. While waiting for Cage, Carrey slides into bed and begins watching Netflix - the events of the Prologue taking place here. The next day, while being visited by his daughter and granddaughter, Carrey decides to accept the Hungry Hungry Hippos script.

Chapter 12[]

Carrey is driven out to TPG's desert compound - a collection of massive geodesic domes - to begin work on the Hungry Hungry Hippos project. While talking with the director (a huge fan of Carrey's work), he reveals that he views the project as a way to preserve the Epic of Gilgamesh in an era of unprecedented mass extinctions and cultural shifts.

For the sections in "Hippopotoma", Carrey is put into a new version of the digital motion-capture system while wearing a state-of-the-art virtual reality system. While within "Hippopotoma", Carrey encounters a character named "Rodney the Rhino" - a virtual reincarnation of Rodney Dangerfield, whom mentored Carrey. The two become close friends and wander the virtual world - which Carrey begins to see as "more real" than the real world as headlines about a corrupt presidential campaign (presumably modelled after the campaign of Donald Trump) and UFOs stream across CNN - before Rodney is slain by the villainous Hyena Queen in a mirror of the death of Enkidu. Carrey is made despondent by this loss and essentially has a tantrum in an attempt to bring Rodney back. After this outburst, Carrey's managers reveal that the tracking system was actually a way to capture the essence of Jim Carrey and immortalize him in the form of AI duplicates and offer to keep his essence alive forevermore, an extremely enticing offer to Carrey.

Chapters 13 and 14[]

The next day, Carrey awakens to find that his house is ablaze. He finds that everything surrounding his house for miles is also on fire due to out-of-control wildfires. After stepping outside, Carrey is nearly mauled by a mountain lion but is saved by his two guard dogs - who are consumed by fire shortly afterwards. Carrey rushes into his house to save Charlie Chaplin's cane but is trapped within the house by a fallen tree. He is only saved from death by being "kidnapped" by the Daughters of Anomie (a group of left-wing radicalized war veterans, all with prosthetic limbs). As the Daughters drive through California towards their safehouse in Topanga, they drive past Al Spielman playing golf before he is consumed by the flames. They also sight a massive glowing object - a UFO - in the sky. They are then called by Nic Cage - who tells the Daughters that their safehouse has been consumed by flames and that they should instead drive to Carrey's beach house (where he has holed up). Seeing no other option, the Daughters follow this advice. As they drive across the beach, Carrey sees Helena's corpse (presumably having died to smoke inhalation) before they reach the beach house.

Once inside the beach house, Carrey finds that the celebrities from Natchez Gushue's night of self-discovery are in the house along with Cage and Natchez (who has been driven into a nigh-catatonic state by the arrival of the aliens). He also discovers that they have filled the house with various weapons in the hope that they can wage war with the aliens. Cage reveals that the aliens are an immensely powerful race who created the Boötes Void to hide their own presence as they sent forth signals onto various planets. Usually, the aliens lay in hiding but they have decided to show their presence - with alien ships over every major city on the planet.

The next morning, Carrey sees an ad for Mucinex using the essence of Marlon Brando (presumably harvested by TPG) which perturbs him. These feelings dissipate after Carrey walks outside and finds that one of the aliens' ships is floating over the ocean emanating a calming atmosphere. A horde of animals (drawn by this atmosphere) group on the beach nearby. They are soon joined by Tom Hanks (whose presence disturbs Carrey, as he worries that he has been relegated to nothing more than a side character) and Steven Spielberg (who begins filming Carrey, making him forget his worries). Kanye West then tries to claim that he is an envoy for the aliens and that Kim Kardashian had a child with them (dubbed the "Star Child") but this facade falls apart. The real envoy for the aliens, Tan Calvin, then presents himself on every single device that can receive data from the alien ships. He reveals that most of human history - including the events shown in the Book of Genesis - were stage-managed by Calvin's people and that the end times have begun for humanity. He claims that a lucky few people will be raptured and live in eternal bliss while the rest live out the rest of their lives trapped on the hellscape of a dying Earth. Many succumb to this promise, including Kelsey Grammer and various other celebrities. Carrey nearly succumbs to the Rapture but is saved by Nic Cage and his remaining army - who lasso Carrey back down to Earth.

Chapters 15 and 16[]

Once back on Earth, Carrey watches as the serpentine aliens led by Tan Calvin begin the apocalypse. After the President is raptured, the Vice President attempts to take control but is assassinated. Japan tries to launch nuclear weapons on the alien ships but it has no effect. Meanwhile, the Church of Scientology develops weapons that have some effect on the aliens' shields but they are forced to retreat after the aliens send out robotic forces. During this time, Carrey has visions of Linda Rondstat due to the lingering effects of the rapture.

Once Carrey fully recovers, the Daughters of Anomie and the surviving celebrities (helped by John Travolta and the surviving Scientologists) plan and begin their final assault on the aliens' mop-up crews (who ride "Striders" - huge bipedal war machines) in a shopping mall. Using an antiaircraft gun, the survivors fire on the Striders - killing several before they notice the gun and begin firing on it. On landing, several Striders fall to buried Claymores along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Sean Penn, and a Daughter firing on them using rocket launchers. Meanwhile, Travolta (along with two Scientologist soldiers) argue with their Daughter commander before all of them are killed by death ray. On seeing this, Nic Cage charges on the aliens - discovering that he is immune to their rays due to a rare genetic mutation. Using two Scientologist weapons, Cage blasts down every single member of the squadron sent to deal with them.

Immediately after this, a horde of even larger Striders with new lasers adapted to Cage's mutation descend on the survivors. During this charge, Gwyneth Paltrow loses a leg. Due to this, the surviving women retreat on a motorcycle while Cage, Penn, and Carrey make a final charge. Penn and Cage are slain but Carrey manages to escape and flees towards the sea.

While running, he comes across a rhino which he initially assumes to be the physical version of Rodney the Rhino before it charges at him. Carrey only barely escapes being gored and makes it to a beachfront mansion. Using a dinghy, he makes it out to sea but is stranded after the dinghy's engine runs out. He spends days alone, dying of thirst and hunger. During this time, he has visions showing him the "the shape of all that has been" (during which he eats his fingers after it becomes an advertisement for Slim Jims) and, in his last dying moments, he has a vision of his father before realizing that he is (or has become) the "one spirit guiding all things" before presumably dying.

Notes[]

The ending sections of this novel have some ties to the Ancient Aliens belief. It is unclear if this is coincidental or a deliberate subversion or linking with Ancient Aliens.

Sources[]

Goodreads
Wikipedia

Title	Author	Release date	Significance
The Sirens of Titan	Kurt Vonnegut	1959	A novel about aliens with similar themes
Chariots of the Gods?	Erich von Däniken	1968	A major work within the Ancient Aliens belief
Vineland	Thomas Pynchon	1990	A novel with similar themes
Revolution Man	Paul Leonard	1999	A novel with vaguely similar themes
The Crying of Lot 49	Thomas Pynchon	1966	A novel with similar themes