By Jean Stein
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An epic, captivating oral background of Hollywood and la from the writer of the modern classic Edie
Jean Stein remodeled the artwork of oral heritage in her groundbreaking ebook Edie: American Girl, an indelible portrait of Andy Warhol “superstar” Edie Sedgwick, which used to be edited with George Plimpton. Now, in West of Eden, she turns to l. a., town of her formative years. Stein vividly captures a mythic solid of characters: their goals and triumphs in addition to their desolation and grief.
those tales remove darkness from the daring aspirations of 5 larger-than-life participants and their households. West of Eden is a piece of background either grand in scale and intimate intimately. on the middle of every kinfolk is a dreamer who unearths fortune and strife in Southern California: Edward Doheny, the Wisconsin-born oil multi-millionaire whose corruption destroyed the attractiveness of a U.S. president and ended in his personal son’s violent dying; Jack Warner, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who along with his brothers based one of many world’s so much iconic movie studios; Jane Garland, the stricken daughter of an aspiring actress who may perhaps by no means get away her mother’s schemes; Jennifer Jones, an actress from Oklahoma who gained the Academy Award at twenty-five yet struggled with melancholy amid her popularity and glamour. ultimately, Stein chronicles the ascent of her personal father, Jules Stein, a watch general practitioner born in Indiana who reworked Hollywood with the production of an unequalled business enterprise and studio.
In each one bankruptcy, Stein paints a portrait of an interloper who pins his or her hopes at the nascent energy and promise of l. a.. every one individual’s unyielding depth pushes household, particularly youngsters, towards a dangerous threshold. West of Eden depicts town that has projected its personal photo of the United States onto the realm, in all its idealism and paradox. As she did in Edie, Jean Stein weaves jointly the private memories of an array of people to create an fantastic tapestry of a spot like no other.
Praise for West of Eden
“Compulsively readable, taking pictures not only a colourful a part of the historical past of Los Angeles—that uniquely ‘American Place’ Stein refers to in her subtitle—but additionally the genuine drama of this city . . . It’s like being at an insider’s cocktail get together the place the main scrumptious gossip in regards to the wealthy and robust is being dished by means of shrewdpermanent humans, comparable to Gore Vidal, Joan Didion, Arthur Miller and Dennis Hopper. . . . Mesmerizing.”—Los Angeles Times
“Perhaps the main marvelous factor that emerges from this riveting ebook is a glimpse of what feels like deep fact. It’s attainable that oral historical past as Stein practices it . . . is as shut as we’re going to return to the true tale of anything.”—The big apple instances booklet Review
“Enthralling . . . brings a few of [L.A.’s] greatest personalities to lifestyles . . . As she did for Edie Sedgwick in Edie: American Girl, [Stein] harnesses a gossipy refrain of voices.”—Vogue
“Even if you’re a gourmand of Hollywood stories, you’ve most likely by no means heard those. . . . As ever, gaudy, debauched, cruel Hollywood has the ability to enthrall its audience.”—The Wall road Journal
“The stories of jaw-dropping extra, cruelty, and betrayal are the stuff of flicks, and the pleasures are immense.”—Vanity Fair
“This riveting oral historical past chronicles the advance of la, from oil boomtown to Tinseltown.”—[i]Entertainment Weekly (“Must List”)
From the Hardcover edition.
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Extra info for West of Eden: An American Place
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Qxd 7/9/04 3:02 PM Page 18 NEVER COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU Jack, as it turns out, has had enough casino experience in South Africa to make him wary of returning to the pit. But the lure of regular income persuades him to take his hair back to its original, more sepulchral, jet black and accept a job as croupier, the person who rakes in the chips and pays the winners on games of chance from roulette to blackjack. Though we never learn exactly why, Jack categorically refuses to gamble and has near-contempt for those who do.
Join those tunes to an energetic and photogenic group of youthful performers and a fantasy plot decked out to look like reality, and you have an astute formula for high-spirited, infectious entertainment that The Commitments executes with a brisk and breathless brio. Taken from a novel by Roddy Doyle (who wrote the script along with veteran Brits Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais), The Commitments begins with a young man with a dream in a town without pity. Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) is Dublin, Ireland, born and bred, and music has always been his passion.
For another, Phil discovers that, much as he dislikes it, February 2 is a day he just can’t escape. Ever. m. qxd 7/9/04 3:02 PM Page 38 NEVER COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU total strangers, is exactly the same as it was on February 2. But while everyone else is living this day for the first time, Phil is not only repeating it, he seems destined to repeat it again and again and again until the end of time. What would you do if there were truly no tomorrow, if you knew everything that was going to happen on a given day and nothing you did ever had even a hint of consequences?