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A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about 5 Hollywood novels that I love. It was behind a paywall and people couldn't read it. So, the 5 books are:
The Western Coast
Zeroville
Hollywood (Gore Vidal)
Blonde (Joyce Carol Oates)
I Should Have Stayed Home
The Western Coast
Zeroville
Hollywood (Gore Vidal)
Blonde (Joyce Carol Oates)
I Should Have Stayed Home
The Western Coast is by Paula Fox, who a) was Courtney Love's grandmother; and b) was rediscovered 20 years ago by Franzen, but no one seems to know about this book, about a female drifter in Hollywood circa WWII who is thoroughly unimpressed by the movie business
I feel like everyone knows about Zeroville but if you don't, it's basically Zelig if Zelig was getting head from Margot Kidder and editing a John Millius film.
Gore Vidal's Hollywood, set in WWI and through the arrival of Hays in Hollywood, is my prestige TV white whale; someday I will figure out how to adapt it into a show about the inherently corrupt three-way relationship between the film industry, Washington and the news media.
Blonde is the best book about Marilyn Monroe I've ever read. I'm excited for Andrew Dominik's film adaptation!
i Should Have Stayed Home is by the guy who wrote They Shoot Horses Don't They. It's a proto-Me Too story about a hayseed boy who comes to Hollywood in the 1930s and has to decide whether or not to use his body as currency. The gender flip on the scenario primes it for satire.
