The Hottest State: A Novel [Paperback]

Ethan Hawke (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 30, 1997

When William meets Sarah at a bar appropriately called the Bitter End, he is a few months short of his twenty-first birthday and about to act in his first movie. He is so used to getting what he wants that he has never been able to care too deeply for anyone. But all of that is about to change. And it is Sarah--bold and shy, seductive and skittish--who will become William's undoing and his salvation.

William's affair with Sarah will take him from a tenement on the Lower East Side to a hotel room in Paris, from a flip proposal of marriage to the extremities of outraged need and the wisdom that comes only to true survivors. Anyone who reads The Hottest State will encounter a writer who can charm, dazzle, and break the heart in a single paragraph.

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; First Edition edition (September 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679781358
• ISBN-13: 978-0679781356
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (160 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,329,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

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

By A Customer

Format: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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not so much the hottest December 14, 2004

By Christina

Format:Paperback

Ethan Hawke keeps your attention, and then looses it. The language was cosmic along with the dialogue, but something's missing. The writing style is unadorned with several repeated phrases. Character development was a bit weak. Hawke's comical and clever, but he's an actor, not a writer. A job well done of portraying a young man who's stupid and in love yet focuses not enough on the story line. William, a 21-year-old actor from NYC was just getting his feet on the ground when he meets Sarah, a neurotic, self-doubting, extremely messed up girl. He falls in love with her instantly but she backs off because of her insecurities. William goes through dramatic times with Sarah trying to make her love and stay with him. But can he? Throughout the story you want to slap the characters for being so over exaggerated. The hottest state seems to be missing a plot. It's a romance gone badly with the reader left with no answers on why. When you get to these parts you read on anticipating answers only to find out there aren't any. You expect an intense scene in the end and you're left with nothing but wanting an actual ending. Hawke has talent, just needs to reform his skills. It was however quick and easy reading.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars true and unpretentious June 28, 2002

By joe koski

Format:Paperback

I am a little disapointed in all the bad press this book has gotten. I was impressed with it since the first time i saw it in a bookstore, when i flipped through the pages, read one paragraph, and knew that I'd love it.
Granted, I most likely picked it up because it was "the" Ethan Hawke, and if he wasn't "the" Ethan Hawke it most likely wouldn't have gotten the attention it has and I would have never read it, but I feel that his being "the" Ethan Hawke has also kind of made it harder for critics to swallow it. Which is a bummer because really, it's a great book.
Their are two things I loved about this book. One, his writing is unpretentious. He reminds me a lot of Hemmingway in his refreshing lack of detial. You don't get the feeling he's trying to prove he's a writer to the whole world by using as many descriptive words as he knows in every paragraph. The story moves along. It's an easy read, but that's a good thing.
The other thing I like, and this is most important, and really, the one thing I feel he deserves heaps of praise for, is he gets it right! He gets right on how it feels to be 20, stupid and in love. Or even better, in like, confused, and full of lust. Ethan Hawke brilliantly lays out a story (you do get the feeling that it's a little autobiographical) with such insight it's impressive. I'm jealos of his abilaty to create such a insightul portrait of a young man. This is one book that gets it right on.