3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating novel from the director of The Stand!, May 9, 2010
This review is from: Development Hell (Hardcover)
Most fans of Mick Garris will primarily know him as a Hollywood director and screenwriter for the both the big screen and for television (Sleepwalkers, The Stand, The Shining, Riding the Bullet, Desperation, and Bag of Bones to name just a few out of his long resume). What is generally not known is that Mr. Garris is also a novelist and a short story writer (My Life in the Cinema). His first novel, Development Hell, was published in 2006 by Cemetery Dance Publications in both a signed limited edition and a trade hardcover. The trade hardcover is not difficult to find with a little searching, especially at a reasonable price.
Okay, but what kind of writer is Mick Garris?
Like Lady Hollywood herself, Mr. Garris enjoys using a multitude of heavily-laced adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors to describe the city of dreams, fame, and fortune in all its grant flamboyance, sparkling beauty, and vile ugliness. To say that Development Hell is a Hollywood novel is an understatement. This is a book designed to blow you away with an insider's satirical look at the city of angels (and stars). It's one man's journey through the light and darkness of Hollywood with bits of horror thrown in, lots and lots of hot sex, and a strong, hard look at the side of a town most people never see. Strange as it may seem, there's also a spiritual quality about this novel that I think was entirely unintentional. I mean it in a good sense because some of the things the protagonist goes through will have you thinking about the afterlife in new and unusual ways.
The story deals with a new hotshot director in tinsel town (we never know his actual name) who's first movie flopped because of studio interference, but now has a new idea for a film which involves a mutant female baby that a Mexican lady leaves him (think of the movie, It's Alive). One thing quickly leads to another and the film about the baby comes to halt, followed by a rather perverted bonding between the child and director. If that wasn't enough, the lead character of the novel soon learns that for a price, he can be with the film goddess of his dreams, Jean Harlow. She's still alive and hasn't aged a bit, though there's something slightly off kilter about her. Then, through a series of strange experiences, the director creates his film masterpiece by committing suicide before the camera, thinking it will finally be the end of his woes and put his name on the map as a famous maker of movies, but it's really just the beginning of his unique journey. God, or the Universe, has a rather bizarre sense of humor, and a person doesn't escape their karma by setting fire to their bodies. No, it just doesn't work that way. The spirit of the director still has a lot to learn, and this will be forced upon him as he takes over the bodies of different people in the film industry, hoping to still make it as a top director. The thing is no one really cares. If there's not a huge Box Office gross attached, it's nothing but dust in the wind, empty of promise and rewards and recognition. In the end, what goes around comes around, and karma must fulfill its destiny whether the spirit wants it or not.
Development Hell is certainly a one-of-a-kind novel. I have never read anything like it before, and I don't think anyone else has, either. The author goes all out with this story, taking each twist and turn to the extreme and never letting up. I found myself shocked, repulsed, surprised, turned on, questioning the meaning of life, and laughing so hard that I sprayed Diet Coke over everyone sitting across from me at the lunch table. I was also always curious as to what would happened next. Mr. Garris knows how to tell a story that's in your face and he isn't afraid to get down and dirty with the descriptions. He will delight and horrify you in the same sentence, but never bore you. While not for everyone, I found this novel about Hollywood and one's man quest for acceptance and acknowledgment to be riveting and compelling and humorous. I mean this very talented author has one warped sense of humor and you simply can't stop yourself from laughing at loud at the some of the scenes in the novel. And, if you're a reader who enjoys a lot of gratuitous sex between men and women, men and men, women and women, and perverted little creatures hungry for love, then you'll want to get a copy of this book.
I hope this isn't the last we've seen of Mick Garris as a novelist. As good a director and screenwriter as he is, this man is also an exceptional novelist who doesn't pull any punches in his storytelling. Wild, exciting, and over-the-top, Development Hell is a novel you won't want to miss.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Funny in places, fascinating and bizarre in others, but ultimately unsatisfying., July 27, 2007
This review is from: Development Hell (Hardcover)
A strange, checkered tale of horror, sex and hollywood satire. The nameless fledgling director protagonist alternately struggles against Hollywood superficiality and embraces it to become successful. Along the way, he experiences all the vices Hollywood can offer - and some of them are very strange indeed.
Development Hell jumps from genre to genre, reveling in pastiche and homage in equal parts. Sadly, though, the contrasting chapters read like a series of short stories rather than a cohesive novel, and the result is very uneven. The end does tie back neatly to the beginning, however.
The railing against Hollywood superficiality also gets rather repetitive. If Garris intended to seriously illustrate the flaws of Hollywood, he overplayed his hand several times. Sadly, that message is also diluted by Garris's own scenes of explicit gore, sex and extreme weirdness which, frankly, appeal to the same base desires that Hollywood does to get our attention.
All in all, entertaining enough, but I don't think I'll read Garris again.
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