Customer Reviews

Weirdsville U.S.A.: The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch

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Paul Woods takes a fan's approach to discussing the life and works of filmmaker David Lynch. The book is at it's strongest when describing the films and the effort it took to create them. The chapter on the 5-year ordeal that Lynch and his gang of misfits underwent in order to bring Eraserhead to the screen (which most of them felt it would never see) is as facinating as the dark, experimental film itself. Woods only falters when he tries to give us a biographical glimpse of Lynch himself. Most of what he tells us about Lynch are the speculations of others and the directors own evasive little quips and soundbites that he has used to deflect interviewers over the years. The books research sometimes seems quite painstaking but at other time Mr. Woods, a british writer, demonstrates an almost unforgivable lack of basic knowledge about America and the market for which Lynch's films are created. At times one wishes that Woods had invested in a map of the U.S. (he refers to Spokane as a suburb of Washington D.C., and at another point describes Washington State as being located in the American Midwest) and perhaps gave another viewing to a few of Lynch's films during his research (he mixes up the chronology of events in "Fire Walk With Me" quite embarrasingly) but, for the largest part, his insights into Lynch's craft are fully realized and well-supported. The more a person knows about Lynch the more this book is likely to infuriate them with it's sloppy attention to detail, but for the Lynch-novice looking for an introduction to obsessive avant-garde cinema, this book will certainly entertain and illuminate.