Customer Reviews

In and Out in Hollywood

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I read this book from cover-to-cover on a flight from Sacramento to Phoenix. Since the flight's about 2 hours long, I either read REALLY fast, or it was a bit light on content.

Either way, the story IS very similar in nature to Christian McLaughlin's "Glamourpuss" but definitely focused a lot more on anger and defeat. The main character is supposedly beautiful enough on the outside to land a job anchoring a TV show but is then relegated to behind-the-scenes work only when it's discovered that he's gay. The rest of the story is basically the show's managers screwing him over, and him making a whole lotta stupid decisions instead of (I know this is a stretch) quitting?

Overall, the book was well-written, but the story was a disappointment. It's a bit hard to sympathize with a main character who seems so clueless about everything from his personal and physical appearance (like there's such a thing as a gay man living in West Hollywood who is completely unaware of how to use his looks.. right!) to the politics and superficiality of Hollywood.

This is about the 5th fiction book I've read about gay men and Hollywood/Showbiz, and it'll be my last.. Enough alcoholics, psychotic egos, drugs/drugs/drugs.. I think everything 'important' (and I use that word very loosely) that needed to be said on the topic has been said.

After reading the promotional material for this novel, as well as the jacket's brief biography of the author, I could not wait to get this book home for a good dishy read. Unfortunately, I was disappointed and aggravated with the material. I was disappointed because the protagonist was spineless and horrendously gullible. Freddie, our hero, starts off as a secure gay man, proud to be out. It is hard to believe that someone with so much self esteem could allow himself to be so completely bamboozled and re-closeted by his new employers. I could accept Freddie as inexperienced and green, but not for the entire year of his employment. If he's been around the block enough times to hold his own with Broadway Divas and Drag Queens, then he should have seen his situation at his new job in television for what it was, and acted appropriately. It is difficult to muster much sympathy for such a total cry baby. I was aggravated because I can not recall ever having read a published manuscript with so many TYPOS. Did any one proof this book before or after it hit the printers? I for one find the overabundance of mistakes with the printed text to be very disconcerting. On a positive note, I think the author shows great potential. The plot was well balanced and the supporting cast was amusing. I hope with his next offering, Mr. Johnson will provide his readers with a stronger more self assured lead character, someone who is not only openly gay, but someone who is not willing to be pushed around because he is.

All right, I admit that I bought this novel more for the author than for the story... but have you read Ben Patrick Johnson's personal story? How similar is to the blurb of the book? So you can imagine how curious I was to read how the main character of this novel behaves since in a way it would be like spying on Johnson's life. But all in all, I believe that Johnson's output in life is better than Freddie's, the hero of this novel.

It's an unusual novel for me to read, since more than a love story is a life story, the adventures of gay Freddie in the glittering and fake world of Hollywood. Freddie is an openly gay radio DJ who lives in West Hollywood with his hunk jamaican boyfriend. Perfect, isn't it? Well, not exactly... Freddie's work is not so exciting and his relationship with Xavier is slowly wearing down. And so when he is talent scouted on the street and in two days offered with the chance to be the host in a new television show, he jumps at the possibility. Freddie, now renamed Daniel, is groomed and taught to be the perfect anchorman, all people around him praising him for being fresh, new and green! Posh hotels, limousines, all around him is glittering and friendly. But Freddie makes a big mistake: he doesn't hide his boyfriend, he brings him to official events... no, no, no dear Freddie, you can be gay at Hollywood, but you should be asexual, it's not good for families to have the proof that you actually have sex with men!

Probably if his relationship with Xavier was happier, Freddie would fight for it, and instead he decides to play along what the network requires, and he slowly is pushed behind the scene, from the front line to the Z position, despite his good works and his clearly predisposition to be on video.

Freddie is a strange character, I don't know if I like him so much; in a way he is not a fighter, and he is also a cheater... well, this last I don't know, it depends on his relationship with Xavier, I don't know what are their agreement, and well, he plays around since Xavier is behaving bad, but still... Lucky for Freddie, he meets a good guy, Charlie, who maybe, gives him the right reason to fight back, even if, maybe, he takes his decision at the very last. Probably I'm a bit too harsh with Freddie, I have in mind this "hero" image, and instead Freddie is probably only a man facing something bigger than him; sometime I almost feel tenderness for him, I almost want to comfort and saying that all will be right. Truth is that he didn't meet so many nice figure, and some of them are disguising so well that you almost mistake them for the bad guy... and what you think a good guy is fake like sometime Hollywood is.

Anyway, the book is a good mix of real life with some nice add of romance; I wouldn't mind for the sex scene to be a bit hotter, but still, they are nice, even if all behind closed doors.

Ben Patrick Johnson carefully mixes innocence and Hollywood insight as a recipe for this tasty story of behind the scenes of an on-camera personality. His knack for imagery and accuracy places the reader in the somewhat treacherous fast track of Hollywood. Although the book is fiction, one can exchange the names of the characters with those in the industry and figure out that this is a "true Hollywood story!" Although many gay men and women will relate to the character's angst over trying to balance his professional life with his sexual orientation, they will certainly be taken by surprise that being gay, even in liberal Hollywood, can have an adverse effect on one's career. This book will certainly be landing in Christmas stockings for my friends and family!

I found the book to be superficial at best with the protagonist having no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The actions of the protagonist seemed to flesh out what has come to be mainstay in the gay culture: good-looking guy, not knowing what he really wants, playing the victim as he drifts from relationship to relationship. I pitied, more than emphathized with the character for leading such a hollow existence. I have a craving for a meaty Harlequin Romance novel after reading this book

This was based on the author's real-life experiences as a an outed "EXTRA" anchorman/spokesmodel, so it can't be faulted for having a plot that seems like a carbon-copy of the hilarious hilarious GLAMOURPUSS, about an outed soap star. However, "IN & OUT..." CAN be faulted for being the whiniest, most self-indulgent gay Hollywood saga ever written. Every page drips with resentment and bitterness, which would be okay if the writing was clever, sarcastic or humorous in any way. Slogging through every second of the protagonist's mistreatment at the hands of a thinly-veiled tabloid TV show is like being trapped in a Miata with a bitter, humorless, resentful recently-fired acquaintance. From L.A. to Palm Springs, during rush hour. The reader prays for some graphic sex to provide some release, and there's definitely potential-- but the main character's one interesting trait, his fetish for men of color of all shapes and sizes, is completely unexplored. I think the moral of this story is...Sometimes gay people get discriminated against in Hollywood because THEY ARE NOT TALENTED!

I believe "a reader" must be Mr. Johnson himself, or a friend. If not, please sit down with "The Bell Jar," "Madame Bovary," or even "Elmo Gets Toilet Trained," and read some writing that is superior to this.

Johnson gives a detailed, fun and often sobering account of life on the otherside of the glitz and glamour. The industry coterie of the beautiful and the damned are all here: fame-seekers, cynical starlets, coniving producers, and closeted hunks. It's a sexy star-infested romp made all the more interesting since Johnson produced the roman a clef after supposedly being outed and ousted from his stint on a national news show! Just trying to figure which character is really who in Hollywood is half the fun! All from a gay stud's point of view. Bring on the sequel!

I found this book very interesting. There is a lot of behind the scenes information. It depicts the trials and tribulations of a young guy in the entertainment industry and sheds light on how tough it is if you do not conform to the norm. I hope this guys writes the rest of the story someday!

Extremely verbose and pretentious. Mr. Johnson should give up trying to impress us with his vocabulary or better yet give up writing completely.

It rates one star only because Amazon won't allow negative numbers.

Don't waste your money girls!