<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Engrossing but harrowing
Review: I find it almost impossible to put down John Kaye's two Hollywood novels. This despite the fact that they may severely darken one's view of human nature. Kaye's stories are beautifully crafted but harrowing tales populated by damaged characters struggling to live in the present, though their movements may seem more ruled by vivid recollections of the past. As sadistic, perverted, and predatory as they may be, Kaye's characters are fully formed human beings striving for some measure of success and happiness in a Hollywood where lust, obsession, avarice, ambition, and predation seem to conspire against them at every turn. Kaye is a literary Hieronymus Bosch, who artfully draws the reader into his scenes of torment by staging them against a backdrop of mundane cultural symbols with which most of us can identify, namely the popular music of the times and the locales and personalities that have become part of the Hollywood mystique. Reading this book is like watching someone jump from a high building -- horrifying but too fascinating to turn away from.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing but harrowing
Review: I find it almost impossible to put down John Kaye's two Hollywood novels. This despite the fact that they may severely darken one's view of human nature. Kaye's stories are beautifully crafted but harrowing tales populated by damaged characters struggling to live in the present, though their movements may seem more ruled by vivid recollections of the past. As sadistic, perverted, and predatory as they may be, Kaye's characters are fully formed human beings striving for some measure of success and happiness in a Hollywood where lust, obsession, avarice, ambition, and predation seem to conspire against them at every turn. Kaye is a literary Hieronymus Bosch, who artfully draws the reader into his scenes of torment by staging them against a backdrop of mundane cultural symbols with which most of us can identify, namely the popular music of the times and the locales and personalities that have become part of the Hollywood mystique. Reading this book is like watching someone jump from a high building -- horrifying but too fascinating to turn away from.
Rating: 
Summary: Finely detailed characters, poorly executed plot
Review: Kaye does such a fine job of portraying the bi-polar world of Hollywood, the highs and lows, always connecting them by finely detailed characters. People in this book are all part of one another; "no man is an island." Almost to a fault. We view these characters through Burks wandering and weaving through the city as his personal life collapses. This is the strength of the novel; his portrayal of a Hollywood of stars and has beens and near-was' all imported from small towns and co-habitating on the ideal of success and stardom. Whether they find it or fail.I think the weakness of the novel comes in the central plot. Burks personal world, his family. Regardless of how his relationships fall apart, how drunk or drugged he becomes, he rather easily succeeds and holds that success. Burk's character seems to work contrary to the Hollywood Kaye portrays. He treats women in the novel as basically stepping stones, poor Burk is looking for a mother (as long as Burk worships their memories it's ok?) As long as these women believed in him or aided him they are martyrs. With all of the well executed and complicated jumping around to secondary characters lives as well as clever plot twists, the novel ends on such a cliche'd note. The novel is not a let down, but it is a drag at the end. I mean Burk and his son seem to be teflon to the seedy tragic world Kaye creates around them. Kaye seems to believe in some type of higher order, that all things happen and are connected and we must believe in this. That living life with good intentions and love does not necessarily just save us, it gets us a succesful career in pictures and a well adjusted son. It gets us the American dream. The novel, in short, lacks the real meaningless tragedies of this world. His tragedies are all explained and ordered. It becomes too much. Perhaps Kaye should familiarize himself with the book of Job.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising, but lost steam
Review: Kaye's first novel is rich with character description. It weaves together an interesting plot. It is powerful, but at the same time it is missing something...
Rating:
Summary: Promising, but lost steam
Review: Kaye's first novel is rich with character description. It weaves together an interesting plot. It is powerful, but at the same time it is missing something...
<< 1 >>
|
