The Assistants, by Robin Lynn Williams, is a raunchy, irreverent look at the underbelly of Hollywood: the world of the casting couch, struggling actresses, power-hungry agents, out-of-touch stars, drugs, alcohol, sex, and, above all else, the assistants who truly make it all happen. Her biography indicates that Williams herself served as a personal assistant to "several Hollywood luminaries," and her experiences clearly fuel the occasionally pathetic, sometimes despairing, but always riotously humorous characters who populate this novel.

The story focuses on five assistants as they struggle to keep swimming with the Hollywood sharks and make it to the big time themselves. Michaela is a not-so-young-anymore starlet who pays the bills with a dead-end job as an assistant for fading sitcom star Victoria Rush (whose husband is chronically unfaithful and currently sleeping with his own assistant). Jeb works as an assistant to Randall Blume, a sleazy agent whose only goal in life is to churn out enough projects to keep him in designer suits and nice cars (the occasional flings with desperate actresses aren't a bad perk either). Jeb's life is fueled by rage and angst: his primary purpose is to get Blume to read his script (since everybody in Hollywood has a project in their pocket), and he can't believe what idiots run the insane asylum.

Kecia works for Travis Trask, the hottest young star since "that other white boy, Leo." She's preoccupied with her horoscope, the latest box of Krispy Kreme donuts, and the IRS man who keeps dropping by to ask about the tax bill left by her musician father. Griffin is an ambitious fellow working for a truly nasty S.O.B., manager Johnny Treadway. Treadway is more interested in his pec implants, his tan, and getting a movie role for himself than his clients' best interests: Griffin does all the work, largely for a promise of soon becoming a full-fledged manager in Treadway's office. And into this mix comes young, naive Rachel, an aspiring screenwriter desperate for work (she drives around town in a battered Dodge Colt given to her by her Uncle Dwayne, an auto mechanic whose specialty is "building whole cars from random parts').

Williams does an amazing job of reflecting the insular, almost incestuous, reality of Hollywood (everybody says it really is just a small town, you know), because her characters are all connected to one another in some sort of six degrees of "I Want to Be a Movie Star." Michaela's boss, Victoria Rush, is managed by Griffin's boss, Johnny Treadway. Treadway's other big client - discovered by Griffin, of course - is Travis Trask, Kecia's boss. And Blume is the agent for both Michaela and Travis, so all of the underlings know one another. When Victoria fires one of her other assistants (she normally has two), Michaela hires Rachel to fill the spot. Like one of those stones thrown into a lake, however, that seemingly simple decision will ultimately impact everyone's life, because it puts Rachel's idealism in stark contrast to the base venality of so many of the characters around her.