Hottest State [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Ethan Hawke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1996

A debut novel from an acclaimed young actor follows the story of young William Harding, who unexpectedly finds himself falling for Sarah and, in three short months, feels the joy of first love and the heartache left behind when it ends. Read by Ethan Hawke. Simultaneous.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Yes, it's "that" Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke the actor. In this slim debut novel, he tells a coming-of-age tale of a fairly unpleasant young actor from Texas named William who lives in Manhattan and is working his way through an ugly little relationship with a singer/songwriter named Sarah. William's parents married young and split up early and he's not too happy with the world at large. Sarah can't quite make heads or tails of her mother. The pair has sex in the bathroom and talks quite a bit about their relationship. It all has a certain ring of truth, but at this point it's probably safe to say that Hawke's movie agent will probably make a better living off the young actor/writer than Hawke's literary agent. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Player of confused but adorable Gen X Romeos in films like Reality Bites and Before Sunrise, Hawke, 25, is easily conjured up as a stand-in for 21-year-old William Harding, the disaffected narrator of this slim first novel, a boy-meets-girl, girl-dumps-boy saga set in a grungy New York of aspiring actors, writers and singers. That William, a college dropout and budding actor, falls fast and hard for Sarah Wingfield, who fronts a band, teaches preschool and is a bit "funny looking," comes as a revelation to him, given his history of using his good looks for quick sex. Sarah casts William's sexual yearnings?and his white trash boyhood?into sharp relief by reading Adrienne Rich, toting a list of rape statistics and refusing to sleep with him. Their doomed romance is intercut with William's memories of his parents' breakup, of talks with his best friend and of his overheated teen relationship with Samantha, who still flits in and out of his life. When Sarah suddenly, inexplicably rejects him after William returns from making a movie in Paris, he descends into self-loathing and homosexual panic?and trashes his apartment. His callow cynicism about women and his flattened out, '90s rendition of Holden Caulfield ("Samantha wanted to have sex. She wasn't doing me any goddamn favors") grow wearisome. But Hawke's emotionally raw account of a world inescapably contracted is oddly affecting and sure to make many a teenage heart go pit-a-pat. Paperback rights to Vintage; audio rights to Time Warner AudioBooks; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Hachette Audio (November 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570423997
• ISBN-13: 978-1570423994
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,009,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, for a movie star..., June 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hottest State: A Novel (Hardcover)

Ok. I 'll fess up. I knew absolutely nothing about this book before I read it, short of the fact that the author was the cutie who made both me and Robin Williams misty-eyed by shouting "Oh Captain, My Captain!" on top of a school desk. So I guess that Ethan, the actor was the source of the attraction to Ethan, the author's first novel -- Mr. Hawke was the reason that I began reading and the reason that I didn't quit reading after the first ten pages.

Because it was tempting to quit in the beginning. Actually, I put the book down several times, tired of the main character's relentless descriptions of women's breasts, (I'm not a prude, but too many breast comments get old, ineffective, and extremely, well, creepish), tired of his obvious intentions to be "deep" all the time, and tired of giving Ethan the chance to have his stuff read just because he's a star. Reality Bites.

But then I read on, haunted by that green heart on the cover which beckoned me to try again. And, really, I'm glad I did. Although at the beginning I thought I was in store for some overrated Gen X babble, Ethan did have some good ideas. Some of his passages were moving and right on, actually, as he traced a relationship from its magical start to its heart-wrenching finish.

The book also seemed highly autobiographical, (the main character is an actor, dropped out of college his first year to pursue an acting career), which made it fun, too. Obviously Ethan took the tried and true hint to "write what you know." Now, ladies and gentlemen, we know Ethan Hawke's a breast man, too.

All kidding aside, this first novel was an easy read, and worth a look at. Ethan can write, and with a first try like this one, hopefully we'll see more of him in the future.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good fall-back, you know, if the acting doesn't work out, December 8, 2000

By 

Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hottest State: A Novel (Paperback)

I was very impressed with Ethan Hawke's writing ability. I thought he wrote a very creative, genuine story. Sad and depressing (would make a good Oprah pick if she picked books about males), but undoubtedly a real love story. Honestly, I was only interested in this novel because I'm a fan of Ethan Hawke, the actor. Now, having read his debut novel, I'm a fan of Ethan Hawke, the writer. A believable, bittersweet, desperate tale about William Harding, who falls in love with an unconventional girl named Sarah after four days together and becomes completely wrapped up in her in the most unhealthy way. This novel is not for the weak of heart. Would make an excellent movie.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The things you do when you're young and stupid!, September 3, 2001

By 

Manola Sommerfeld (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hottest State: A Novel (Paperback)

Here's a universal truth: at least once in our lives every one of us has fallen in love with the wrong person. And we have fallen in love despite the fact that we knew perfectly well that s/he meant trouble. This usually happens when you are young, at a time when it is almost impossible to reconcile hormones with common sense. There's nothing new here: Shakespeare already dealt with this in Romeo and Juliet, and lots of other authors did it before him. This is the single one thing that Hawke does well in this novel: Portray how incredibly reckless young people are with their lives in the name of "love". If it weren't for the fact that kids in their 20's are never going to listen to anyone, this should be mandatory reading.

William, who turns 21 in the novel, falls in love/lust with Sarah, who is E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y messed up. William gets all head over heels about her, and it becomes obvious very quickly that this story is going to have a bad ending. Sarah has so much rotten baggage that you can chew it in every page. Hawke is a powerful writer in that he is able to elicit strong emotions from the readers. I wanted to slap Sarah over the head so badly! I wanted to tell her: enough with the bull! Then, i would turn around wanting to do the same thing to William. I could almost understand the amounts of devastation that William causes when upset (one more sign of the power of testosterone). He destroys kitchen cabinets, his hand, and even drops his contacts on the floor when they feel uncomfortable!

Some of the writing is very exaggerated and staged. If Hawke makes William speak like that because William is an actor, then OK. However, the climate in some of the situations was not conducive to remembering lines of any kind, so i go for the affectation option. The end of chapter 12, where William tells Sarah: "I've been you, and i know that you suck", must be one of the most unfortunate sentences in XX century American Literature. At the same time, Decker's resolutions for the New Year in Chapter 20 are very wise ("[...] never waste energy degrading someone else. Also, i want to try not to see life as a competition.")

So, this novel is interesting, easy and fast to read, does a fairly good job at portraying how you can over-dramatize a peanut when you're in your early 20's, but at the same time fails to deliver good quality writing, falling for too many cliches.