Fetish Blonde [Library Binding]

John Gilmore (Editor)

Product Details

• Library Binding: 192 pages
• Publisher: The Tears Corporation/Creation (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1871592658
• ISBN-13: 978-1871592658
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,471,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "the quintessential L.A. noir writer," John Gilmore has been acclaimed internationally for his hard-boiled true crime books, his Hollywood memoirs and his biting, literary fiction. He is considered one of today's most controversial American authors, with a following that spans the globe from Tokyo, Paris and London, to his native Hollywood where he was friends with the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. He traveled the road to fame in many guises before turning to writing: kid magician, painter, poet, actor in films, TV, and the New York stage, then screen-writer, B-movie director into a "bang 'em out alive," nine-day novelist. "Few like to look back at how they kept the pot boiling," Gilmore says. "For me it was an education--a turning point from frantic to be a movie star, to just letting the dog out of the cage."
After heading the writing program at Antioch's west coast university, Gilmore traveled and lectured extensively while creating an indelible mark in crime literature with Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia, described by Colin Wilson as "The best book on the Black Dahlia--in fact, the only readable book." After years of "being on the road," as he puts it, three times married, three times divorced and now single, he resides in the Hollywood Hills, expanding his body of work with a "lengthy, peculiar" novel, plus another unusual exploration into true-crime.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettably Disturbing, August 12, 2001

By 

jill kessler (Burbank, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fetish Blonde (Library Binding)

If there is such a thing as pushing the limits of literature, this book does that. At the same time, it holds tightly to very believable characters, as weird as some of them are. This is a story of profound mystery, not your run-of-the-mill mystery, but mystery of the human soul. That seems to be this author's playing field (all of his books focus on the mystery of the human soul in one form another). Certainly not for everybody, but if want to be bounced around in a carnival-fun-house-freak-show of the mind, step right up! I think people are afraid of this book. The title is misleading. It is not about sexual FETISH per se, though it is lavish in its sexual frenzy; erotic, sadomasochistic, even vampirism (real and imagined), pushing the limits way beyond obsession in a weird search for fulfillment that is always just out of reach. The "fetish" is the power of magic, if you will, contained in someone or something. This existentialist, scary tale reflects if not magnifys the deeper, dark side of the human condition that comes from failure, frustration and depair. A fast read into a world not many of us dare to enter.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS BOOK IS SCARY, February 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Fetish Blonde (Library Binding)

OK, I'm convinced: John Gilmore is a great writer. He writes like Jakcson Pollock paints. Everything dazzles and it all connects and bothers...you. He's a DISTURBING writer. No placating or reader-friendly pats on the back. From the very first sentence in this book, the reader is bounced through a smaller-scale Hieronymus Bosch nightmare, from twisted sex to dwarf-tossing, to sick, desperate desires from Beverly Hills to the sewers of Pairs. A strong stomach helps. So when is David Lynch making this into a movie?

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars STRONG MEDICINE!, May 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Fetish Blonde (Library Binding)

What a read! A fast-paced, wild novel; dark and dangerous. John Gilmore is an outstanding writer. This is an unforgettable novel, weird and peculiar. William S. Burroughs gave it a thumbs up plug and he's right. Sexual obsession, strange characters lurking about, a true existential hero bent on self-destruct. The sewers of Paris. This is not a long book. It is short and packed and guaranteed to take you places you haven't been before.