Customer Reviews

Hollywood Animal

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fairly slow going as screenwriters are apparently not necessarily great book authors, but interesting insight into how Hollywood really works - or doesn't, as the case may be. I found that far more interesting than who the author had sex with.

I read this to hear about Hollywood and scriptwriting game, however, I ended up very intrigued by the backstory concerning the author's parents. If you are interested in scriptwriting or film-making, then this book is four or five star. However, a friend of mine without such interests really struggled with this book and ultimately didn't finish it. Joe Eszterhas has lead a life which many would judge him for, but that doesn't stop it from being interesting.

When Joe Esterhasz gets to about page 600 he reveals he has cancer of the oesophagus because of his smoking, drinking lifestyle. The book, at that moment, takes on a surreal tone and you realise the irony of what has gone before. It is a great work, not a great literary work but as a detailed picture drawn by a talented although slightly eccentric screenwriter who manages to alienate more people (according to the book) than most. Sometimes the detail is self-indulgent and unnecessary, such as the over-done italicised love letters/diaries of his second wife. I must admit I could have done without most of those but for the most part, and for the lifestyle 'don't smoke' warning, and for the Hollywood gossip, this is worth a read, especially if you like stories about movie directors lusting after starlets...who doesn't?

Having read everything Joe has written, I am in Love with him. I lived in Akron OH for 3 years and spent time in Cleveland. Tough Town. I thought Joe was getting his background fron that town until I read all of his books. Now that I know what he went through getting to America, I understand him more.

A great and funny and sad read.

Joe Eszterhas is the well-known writer of Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge, Music Box and other movie scripts. In this book, he intersperses his Hollywood experience with his modest Hungarian background - two different worlds. Eszterhas relates some of his experiences of the good life, being highly paid and famous in Hollywood amongst his new best friend actors, producers and agents. This atmosphere is not for the faint-of-heart but Eszterhas was able to hold is own and command top payment for his scripts. Eventually, and fortunately, he and his family moved out of Hollywood where shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. His efforts to stop smoking and drinking, both entrenched and decades-old, took more strength than anything preceeding it. But he did it.

Hollywood Animal will provide many titillating stories of the big (and sometimes tough) guys and gals in The Business. It also gives us a glimpse of Eszterhas as a survivor who lived to write about it. Recommended.

This is a long, too long, book in my opinion. Got tired of reading about Hollywood, particularly the Hollywood of the author.

The book could have been half the size and sharpened up and would be much more readable, at least to me.

I finished the book, but hd to work at it to get through. Guess the topic was not as interesting to me as I thought it would be.

Those who want to hear all the gossip about Hollywood, as seen through the eyes of one person and that one person's opinnion, will enjoy the book.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"