Customer Reviews

West of Paradise

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

What a piece of thoughtless tripe. This is a book that seems to have been created for the sub Entertainment Tonight level of curiosity about Hollywood. The stereotypes in this novel are not worth recreating,(they've been done better elsewhere), the stage is ridiculous, and the writing is just plain awful. I myself am surprised that anyone would care to write such trash and more surprised that people would actually publish it. It is so obvious that this person has been ostracized from the group she purports to be a part of. It is an attempt to feed of a host, like a remora feeds off a great shark. This simply reads like a poison pen letter of a rejected woman. I was given this book as a gift and decided upon reading the first chapter to terminate my friendship with the giftgiver. Be safe avoid this empty story like it is the plague

I have never read a book by Gwen Davis. This is my first. I was very dissapointed and so was my 76 year old mom (we read it on vacation in Burmuda). We think that the writer is trying to be shocking and hip, but it all feels very dated. It's a very fake portrait of Hollywood people, and sounds like it was written by an aging film star who hasn't had a job in 25 years. There are several stereotypes, leading me to believe that the writer isn't current on recent social trends.

I was surprised that Army Archerd in Variety liked it so much -- he must be friends with the author. Also, considering he's about 85 years old, you can take his opinion with a grain of Geritol!

If you like fun or sexy "insider" books about Hollywood, I would stick to older tried and true titles (like THE EXHIBITIONIST) or Jackie Collins -- she really has the dish and a great style. I think that the only Hollywood parties Gwen Davis attends are at the Actor's Home. She doesn't seem to be an insider anymore, if she was one once. PARADISE is not a vivid, "90's" Hollywood novel. I wish it had been -- don't wait for the paperback.

The author has got to be kidding. This is the most dried-out, uninspired, non-novel I've seen in quite some time. The main character is a complete cipher. What's a human being to care about here? Zilch. Glad the author is so pleased with herself.

I picked up this book hoping to read something light and funny, as that is what the jacket promised. Couldn't finish it. The characters did not hold my attention because there were not any that I cared about it. And it did not make me laugh. I was bored by it.

Davis is a very bitter woman whose prose is saturated with petty anger and frustration. It makes for a perfectly awful, unpleasant read. I got about half way through it before I tossed it into the trash can. Hopefully this will be her literary swan song.

Imagine what it is to try and find depth in people whose whole lives are based on not having any. That's what happens to Kate, a Fitzgerald buff, who shares his illusions about Hollywood and comes to Glitterville in the hope of finding friends, love, and..please God.. an imspiration for a great book. So she goes to the funeral of a high-profile producer in hopes of rubbing shoulders with all the celebs she knows will attend, not just out of social-climbing, but because she is so desperately lonely, LA being a place where nobody invites you unless you already know them, and there's noi place to meet accidentally. So as a funeral is really a party, only a sad one, she crashes, And meets a funny, lively actor/dope-dealer(everyone in Hollywood is a hyphenate) who takes her to the big shebang afterwards, and introduces her to everybody under false pretenses, which is all there are in the movie business.And idealist though she starts out, she becomes a part of it all, meeting zany characters, power players, glitzy frauds, and one REAL person, Lila, who doesn't belong there at all. I know just howKate feels, because I, too, got caught up in that bulls*** and that's why I wrote about it. I'm the author. But I had fun writing it, and I hope you'll have fun reading it, and it helped me make the decision to get out of there...So look what happens to her. But you'll love Lila, and the reclusive director Rodney Sameth(guess who he's based on?) and the one pure soul, (I'll tell you who he is.) And you'll laugh with Algernon Reddy(Timothy Leary) as he leaves this life, and says "I decided not to die in California, because how could I tell?

This is the first time in years I have picked up a book and literally not been able to put it down. Fay Weldon said it was the best book out of Hollywood in years and she wasn't kidding. What a joy! she added, but what she didn't add was that it's hard to stop laughing in-between the fabulous insights into Hollywood and all its glitz, which of course covers terrific pain and a sense of non-belonging that seems to characterize not just movie stars, but everyone who longs for celebrity.Elizabeth Forsyth Hailey who wrote one of my favorite novels said "If Jane Austen were alive at the end of the 20th century and living in Hollywood her name would be Gwen Davis" No kidding. It's a study of the place as if it were a real society with pith and vinegar.Would love to exchange opinions with other readers about who the roman a clef characters really are. please contact me at jeremykj@bigfoot.com