A fiercely vivid collection of stories about troubled California teenagers and misfits--violent and harrowing, from the astonishingly talented actor and artist James Franco.
Palo Alto is the debut of a surprising and powerful new literary voice. Written with an immediate sense of place--claustrophobic and ominous--James Franco's collection traces the lives of an extended group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism. In "Lockheed" a young woman's summer--spent working a dull internship--is suddenly upended by a spectacular incident of violence at a house party. In "American History" a high school freshman attempts to impress a girl during a classroom skit with a realistic portrayal of a slave owner—only to have his feigned bigotry avenged. In "I Could Kill Someone," a lonely teenager buys a gun with the aim of killing his high school tormentor, but begins to wonder about his bully's own inner life.
These linked stories, stark, vivid, and disturbing, are a compelling portrait of lives on the rough fringes of youth.
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A certain amount of skepticism accompanies the reading of a movie star’s short story collection. Are they worthy of publication? Would I read them if written by someone else? The stories in Palo Alto depict the confused experiences of teenagers in Palo Alto, California. The characters surprise with their maturity then devolve into moments of violent stupidity. Their beautiful lack of self-awareness drives the stories. In Killing Animals, Franco deftly addresses race as some wannabe delinquents find themselves in over their heads. Infatuations, drunkenness, and boredom find space throughout the collection. Each story’s simplicity belies complexity of emotion and maturation. Franco conveys something we all know but enjoy hearing again: growing up is painful yet wonderful. The deceptive simplicity also masks the complexity of Franco’s writing. His economic construction seems so simple throughout, but the stories end up approaching profundity. These stories were not published because James Franco is a movie star but because they are good. He makes the difficult appear simple, which only a talented writer can do. --Blair Parsons
James Franco is an actor, director, screenwriter, and artist. His film appearances include "Milk," "Pineapple Express," the "Spider-Man" trilogy, and upcoming appearances in "Eat, Pray, Love," and "Howl," in which he portrays beat poet Allen Ginsberg. On television, he starred in the critically acclaimed series "Freaks and Geeks." Franco has also written, directed and starred in several short plays, two of which -- "Fool's Gold" and "The Ape" -- he adapted into feature-length films. He also wrote and directed the film "Good Time Max." Franco will be participating in an upcoming gallery show at Deitch Projects in New York, and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, McSweeney's, and other publications
I'm pretending hunkosaurus Franco didn't write this. Moving on.
This is the stuff of every Creative Writing class you took as an undergrad. It's all Holden Caulfield crabby and Bret Easton Ellis name-droppy; gruesome with those obnoxious one-liner sentences that are meant to be profound in their brevity. The racial issues are slapped on strangely, and the tone is mushy oatmeal bland. "Killing Animals" was worth reading, but even then, it feels like Ellis fan fiction.
Now I'm pretending Franco did write them. Look my man, you have many rich and successful friends. Many of whom are writers who like you because you're a cool dude. You're also a hunk. This is working against you. If my mom wrote a book called "imma Real Gud Mama", I'd tell her she was the next Faulkner.
Get some unbiased advice, sweetheart. And call me.
I'm frankly shocked by the positive reviews already posted for this collection of stories by James Franco. I was hoping to avoid making the obvious statement, but I feel there's no way around it - this book never would have seen the light of day if Franco was not an actor.
I don't know much about acting, but I realize it involves inhabiting the psyche of a single person for the duration of a film. Writing however, involves probing the minds of multiple characters and keeping track of their personalities and the stories in which they are a part of. Franco may be a competent actor, but he is no writer.
These stories, averaging ten pages each, constitute some of the worst writing I've ever had the displeasure to read. Not only are they bad, they are offensive in almost every regard. If you are going to subject your audience to teenagers engaged in horrific and senseless sexual behavior and acts of violence, you better have some damn good prose to make it all seem surreal.
Franco writes in a pseudo-minimalist style that is trying to be some sort of Denis Johnson/Raymond Carver hybrid, but acheives neither. Johnson is incredibly poetic and incisive while creating characters we actually care about. Franco's bunch of degenerates have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They are lost and hopeless, but unfortunately they are never tragic. Tragic would imply that these people are aware of how lost they are.
Take any Carver story and look at the emotion evoked by these poor wretched people just barely scraping by. This is because Carver cares about his characters, he wants to see them do what's right even though he knows they won't.
I went into this book with an open mind. I wanted to like it. I was hoping that Franco would impress me. I walked away disgusted and disappointed. If I may be so bold, he seems enamored by the "literary author" image, but lacks the chops to fully inhabit it.
Ammendment: These quotes from other recognized literary authors sound like they've been paid to drool all over Franco's book. Who gives blurbs like these unless you've gotten money to sound this enraptured?
"Franco's talent is unmistakable, his ambition profound." "This is a book to be inhaled more than once, with delight and admiration." --Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story
"Franco's intense artistry swarms all over this gripping book" --Ben Marcus, author of Notable American Women
Intense artistry? Profound ambition?
Okay...now everyone bow down to Hollywood...all together now.
I had the experience (I had originally typed "pleasure" but I realize that would be dishonest of me) of reading Franco's "Into the Black" (re-named "Jack-O" for the book) in Esquire during my final year as an undergraduate creative writing major. Reading that story, knowing it had been published in such an esteemed magazine by an unknown writer, was like being punched in the face by someone wearing a large high school ring on each finger who had recently completely his lavatory hygiene with that same fist.
The "black gaping gap" line is missing from the book, however the prose maintains the choppy, voiceless, faux-80's-minimalism of that piece throughout. I recommend to anyone considering a purchase: go online, read "Into the Black." If you love it then hey, good for you, James has a fan. If not, don't bother, unless you are like me and feel the need to masochistically go through it all with a red pen.
Franco is a fine writer if your standards are "Creative Writing Intermediate Class." These stories would not have wowed me in an advanced or master class and they certainly do not merit publishing. It is an insult to writing students everywhere to see this in print, especially lauded by Amy Hempel and Mona Simpson (those endorsements almost made me cry). It is clear that if, like the rest of us, Franco had taken a four-year program, he could emerge as a decent writer. However his experience is slapdash and copycat and it shows. I have read far, far better stories by my peers and it is beyond frustrating knowing how hard they will have to work to ever see their work as exposed as Franco's. I cannot believe that Yale has accepted him as an English PhD student.
On a side note, a friend pointed out that Franco's name is the same size as the title on the front cover, and we all had a good laugh.
