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Rating: 
Summary: National Geographic gets ripped off...
Review: A.M. Homes is an otherwise respected fiction novelist, and National Geographic magazine asked her to particpate in a series of non-fiction books, each one being an author's take on a particular city around the world. Ms. Homes requested Los Angeles.
In all fairness, I have not read the other books in the series (there are about 20 or so). But "Los Angeles: People, Places, and the Castle on the Hill" is a thin book (175 pages, in a small format) and is thinly written. It smacks of something written because the author had already accepted an advance and furthermore, was living high on the hog in the lavishly expensive Chateau Marmont hotel, so she had to produce SOMETHING. This is a pretty poor excuse for SOMETHING.
Ms. Homes has relied pretty heavily on the far better book about the Chateau, "Life at the Marmont", although she does not credit that book. (She does manage to...errr...capture numerous stories and quotes directly from it.) Although the Marmont is an interesting hotel, steeped in Hollywood history, A.M. Homes has nothing very interesting to say about it except how utterly comfy she was staying there....imagine how truly dull it would be to read about someone's vacation, and have the entire story be about the Holiday Inn or Ramada that they stayed in. Now just adjust the daily room rate upwards by about 10 times.
Bored and disinterested in LA (making the reader puzzled as to why she chose it as a subject), Ms. Homes narrative wanders and stumbles. At leat a dozen pages are devoted to why the author doesn't like flying...how choosy she is about what hotels she is willing to stay at (she often picks up and leaves if the "ambience" isn't just perfect) and so on. None of this is remotely related to the topic of Los Angeles.
Apparently unwilling to leave the comforts of the secluded Chateau Marmont, most of the book is contained in five genuinely dull first person interviews: one with a Beverly Hills mailman, another with a Beverly Hills mohel (rabbi who performs ritual circumsision), etc. For Ms. Homes, there is apparently no Los Angeles that exists outside of a few very well known zip codes, immediately adjacent to (yes, again) the fabulous Chateau Marmont.
If attempting to be a travelogue or a snapshot of an interesting and unique US city, this book is an embarassing failure. If I were the editor at the National Geographic, I would be pretty ashamed of handing this author cart blanche to laze around the pool, ordering room service and then turning out this kind of drivel.
In conclusion: thin, boring fluff. And how can I get the National Geographic to underwrite my next vacation????
Rating: 
Summary: I wouldn't call it "garbage,"
Review: but it ain't no great shakes either. OK, Homes doesn't like LA, and for the same reasons many don't. But she's the novelist, and she's the one who got asked to write the book, OK? That's no reason not to like it. What's far more revealing, though, is that Homes apparently had no idea of where to go in this book or how to organize it, so she just kind of jumps all over the place, even going to a first-person interview format in places, which is pretty disjointing to the reader. The other thing is that, upon reading this, you understand that Homes is nearly as neurotic (some would merely say nuts) as a lot of the characters in her books. Her abberations and just plain weirdness are right out there, and, unfortunately, they're nothing to be boastful of.
She talks about the hotel as if it's a sacred place, when all it is is another exorbitantly overpriced LA hotel that has a tad more charm than some others.
AM, stick to fiction. And maybe some therapy?
Rating:
Summary: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME ON THIS GARBAGE.
Review: Don't waste your time and money on this piece of excrement. Ms. Homes HATES L.A. and lets the reader know it all the time. She knows nothing of the history of Chateau Marmont. She also has an ego so huge it wouldn't fit into Arrowhead Pond. No dear, it's not REALLY a pond! The writer refers to herself more than once as an "intellectual from the East." Usually when someone speaks so highly of themselves it's frequently because no one else does. Ms. Homes is like the one irritating girl in class that knows EVERYTHING and lets you know she knows everything all the time. If you want to read a truly splendid book about the Chateau Marmont pick up "Life at the Marmont" and don't waste any time and money on this one. My copy will be on the garbage truck in the morning. If I could have chosen NO STARS I would. A.M. Homes you are a disgrace.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME ON THIS GARBAGE.
Review: Don't waste your time and money on this piece of excrement. Ms. Homes HATES L.A. and lets the reader know it all the time. She knows nothing of the history of Chateau Marmont. She also has an ego so huge it wouldn't fit into Arrowhead Pond. No dear, it's not REALLY a pond! The writer refers to herself more than once as an "intellectual from the East." Usually when someone speaks so highly of themselves it's frequently because no one else does. Ms. Homes is like the one irritating girl in class that knows EVERYTHING and lets you know she knows everything all the time. If you want to read a truly splendid book about the Chateau Marmont pick up "Life at the Marmont" and don't waste any time and money on this one. My copy will be on the garbage truck in the morning. If I could have chosen NO STARS I would. A.M. Homes you are a disgrace.
Rating: 
Summary: what a novelist knows
Review: I am a huge fan of Homes' fiction and it's really nice to see her branch out--what I like about this book is that it has some of the same characteristics as her novels and stories, a really unique point of view, and the people she selected to intervew are smart, interesting and end up telling the reader a lot not just
about LA, but about human behavior and the need to need to be seen/noticed.
Rating:
Summary: what a novelist knows
Review: It's one thing to write a book trashing Los Angeles, it's another to be unoriginal. The only thing worth noting is the author's apparent lack of awareness that her behavior and attitude is exactly what *everyone* doesn't like about LA.PS: If you are a fan of Jennifer Beals, she is extensively quoted here.
Rating:
Summary: Can you select zero stars?
Review: It's one thing to write a book trashing Los Angeles, it's another to be unoriginal. The only thing worth noting is the author's apparent lack of awareness that her behavior and attitude is exactly what *everyone* doesn't like about LA. PS: If you are a fan of Jennifer Beals, she is extensively quoted here.
Rating:
Summary: LA from the outside in
Review: This book offers an outsider's perspective on the city of Los Angeles, and all the things that make "LA" what it has come to represent culturally and geographically to the rest of the country. The interviews provided insight into the fabric of the city and introduced us to a variety of memorable personalities. I enjoyed looking at LA the way a novelist would approach a character in a story --> what makes the city tick?
Rating:
Summary: LA from the outside in
Review: This book offers an outsider's perspective on the city of Los Angeles, and all the things that make "LA" what it has come to represent culturally and geographically to the rest of the country. The interviews provided insight into the fabric of the city and introduced us to a variety of memorable personalities. I enjoyed looking at LA the way a novelist would approach a character in a story --> what makes the city tick?
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