Customer Reviews

Zeroville

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I am putting together a new Freshman level class for the Spring semester, and after reading Zeroville and several other of Erickson's books, I want to toss out all the textbooks I have assigned and replace them with Erickson's novels. He is so passionate about digging through different historic events, exploring America's bizzare and dangerous obsessions with its own exceptionalism and millennial fantasies, that Erickson outshines just about any academic text on American history and meaning (it doesn't hurt that he writes better than historians).
But specifically, the way in which the character Vikar approaches reality and movies is as a complete innocent: he sees horror movies and thinks they are comedies; after watching The Sound of Music, he believes the An Trapps are a re-invention of the Manson family, trailing songs and terror throughout Europe. This narrative choice allows the reader to experience the last four decades of history and movies with completely new eyes, revealing just how odd a place and time America really is.
Vikar's innocence is balanced by his violence (smashing a hippie in the head with a dinner tray because the man mis-identified the Taylor/Clift tatoo on Vikar's head) suggesting, at least to me, the public claims to innocence that the U.S. has historically claimed while it has been engaged in some of the most violent actions of the modern period.
But, again, Zeroville stands up to readings on multiple levels and calls out of multiple readings. It also sheds light back on Erikson's earlier work, suggesting the linked but non-linear continuity of all his works.
If you like movies, punk rock, beautiful narrative prose or just flat out, off-handed weirdness then Zeroville is the perfect drug.

There are several things I want to say about Steve Erickson's Zeroville, but none of them really describe what's going on here. The first would be that you really need to love and know vintage movies to get this, but that's not entirely true. Yes, it would add to the experience to know the difference between Rio Bravo and Red River, and to understand what Vikar means when he says that Travis Bickle is in another movie where he's a boxer. But that's also completely unnecessary to get into the quest--and that's what this story is, a quest--that Vikar undertakes. The second is that this story, with its piles upon piles of coincidence, wonder and desperation reminds me, more than any other book, of House of Leaves. I think Vikar and Johnny have a lot in common, but Vikar's quest is absent the unnamed menace of Johnny's.

Vikar knows movies. In fact, that's all he knows. He finds his feelings in them, but learns how to communicate with others not through what is said during movies but rather what the people around him say about the movies. That's the thing about Erickson's writing that makes this book so hard to pin down: it's not a book about the movies, it's a book about how we feel about the movies. And in a way, it's a book about how the movies feel about us. Vikar gives his whole life to unspooling a cosmic reel of questions--saying that makes the book sound lofty and sanctimonious, but Erickson brings it down to earth with the grit of Vikar's obsessions, appetites and fears.

Like House of Leaves, I'm still not entirely sure that what I have written about Zeroville is even accurate. But to its credit the book was fun to read, even through its ruminations on God and sacrifice, so that I am ready to revisit this, and soon.

Zeroville

This is from my Myspace Blog:
Many of you have already heard me rant about how great Steve Erickson is. Not as much as you have heard about Vollmann or Murakami but probably a lot. He is one of those well reviewed but not well read authors for whom I like to play town crier. I have only read three of his novels. The first I read was amazing and those few of you who have taken my recommendation and read "The Sea Came in at Midnight" agreed. It is one of the best plotted literary efforts I have ever read and one reviewer on the book's jacket refered to it as a mobius strip and he was not far off. The book haunts and lingers in the best way; a cerebral imprint. The second I read by Erickson was not very good, I hate to say it, but skip "Rubicon Beach" if you see it in a remainder bin. He is better than that (no matter what Paul Auster blurbs on the back).

Long story short, Erickson has a new novel due out in November. It is called "Zeroville." I already posted about it on the book page [...]/whatchu_reading but I wanted to mention it again here. Like "The Sea..." this one still haunts my memory. It is a book about movies, not just Hollywood but moviemaking and a true love of cinema, the making of dreams; Celluloid Eden. I love movies and I might have to guess that a love of movies is necessary to enjoy this book, to really get it. Not just a love of movies but a body of knowledge about the history of film. "Zeroville" makes no allowances, it cuts a path through film history, especially the New Hollywood of the late sixties and seventies and the reader must keep up. The birth and rise of punk music and the downtown NYC scene is there too (common in Erickson novels), its iconoclasm on the same trajectory of Hollywood's decade under the influence.

Stylistically it is such a simple book of delicate prose driven by a film-worshipping cypher protagonist. He has the Montegomery Cliff/Elizabeth Taylor kiss scene from "A Place in the Sun" tattooed on his bald head. He is like Forrest Gump in the best violent-Faulknerian-idiot-man-child way possible; the anti-gump maybe. It is a Hollywood book in the abstract sense, not the geographic sense, as politics and spirtuality all try their hand at abusing the medium; a hallowed medium that wears its tarnish like polish as part of its charm. But like all arts, it is a medium of sacrifice and the story of Abraham and Isaac is a dark and constant leitmotif of the book.

I read it a month ago in an advance review copy and I want to read it again. I also now have "A Place in the Sun" in my amazon wish list and want to read Dreiser's book the movie was based on. West's "Day of the Locust," Vidal's "Hollywood," Chandler's "Little Sister," or Fitzgerald's "The Last Tycoon" don't seem to get at the inner depths of the meaning of film itself like "Zeroville" does. Those books go for the geography of Hollywood, but not the abstraction. Erickson makes it Platonic and Biblical, a Celluloid Eden of fear and awe, to be sought for and worshipped.

Who knows, maybe I am wrong. Maybe the book's not that great. Maybe I just like film a lot. But the book haunts me. Its images. Like memories from a thousand dark and timeless movies. Like Isaac on the altar or St. Joan on her fiery stake. "Zeroville" does more than linger; I feel bound and burned.

"Zeroville" is a great little thought provoking page turner but especially poignant for those familiar with the wild worlds of Peter Biskind's "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood." It's an added degree of fun to try and pinpoint the characters who populate Erickson's novel and Biskind's rollicking tale of excesses provides an entertaining and elucidating skeleton key. Thumbs up! Buy it read it and laugh about it.

I'd heard of Erickson's books, but never read anything by him until a friend gave this to me as a birthday present, knowing my love of books and film. It's an interesting novel, both easy to read and not at the same time. Set largelt amidst the Hollywood film industry of the 1970s and 80s, it's saturated with film references, but not really about film at all. Film is just used as a way to explore larger themes of -- among other things -- fate, communication, linearity, meaning, and belief.

The story revolves around Vikar, a blank 20something who has fled his claustrophobic religious upbringing and studies at seminary for the world of cinema. He is one of those ultra-naive fictional characters who wander the world either not understanding it, or perhaps understanding it better than the rest of us. His only frame of reference with the rest of the world seems to be through films, and as a result, what little plot exists, is largely driven by Vikar's adventures both working on and watching films, as well as his strange relationship with a mysterious small-time actress (possibly the daughter of Luis Buñuel) and her daughter.

Being familiar with most of the film references sprinkled through the book, it's hard to imagine those less steeped in cinema enjoying the book very much. Not only are there lots of discussions of the meaning of particular scenes or films (including an interesting debate about the end of Casablanca), but the book is studded with real life Hollywood figures who are never named. The colorful writer/director John Milius pops up as an influential recurring character in Vikar's new life under the nickname "Viking Man," and those who are tuned in will recognize other Hollywood figures (including Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Brian DePalma, Robert DeNiro, Michael Cimino, and Margot Kidder bestowing some kindly fellatio). Over time, these allusions grow rather tiresome, as Erickson seems to coyly recognize that to use real names could be problematic (legally speaking), but can't resist the cameos.

In any event, even if you're not a film buff/geek/aficionado, I would strongly suggest at least familiarizing yourself with a few key films before starting the book. There's A Place in the Sun, a scene from which is tattooed on Vikar's head and becomes a running motif. There's Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, a lost cut of which becomes central to his quest. And there's Goddard's Alphaville, from which the book's title and circular construction comes. Similarly, one's enjoyment of the book may well be enhanced by reading two acclaimed histories of the "New Hollywood" cinema of that era, Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Mark Harris's Pictures at a Revolution.

There's a lot of other stuff besides film mixed in as well, such as the Manson murders and the rise of the New York and LA punk scenes (again, with bands that remain unnamed but recognizable, such as X and The Germs). However, by the end I felt much as I did at the end of another notable experimentalist novel, Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves -- rather unmoved by the whole enterprise. Both books contain lots of interesting ideas, neat scenes, solid writing, but are somehow less than the sum of their parts. A much more interesting work of experimental fiction that revolves around Hollywood cinema is David Thomson's Suspects.

Here is a perplexing book. Man, I thought I was a film geek. This guy, Erickson, truly knows a lot about film. He's inspired me to rent some things I've never considered, "A Place In The Sun" , for sure.

I found the middle section of this book to be rather tedious- a lot of movie geek banter- but I kept chugging along. I dug the ending. He really brings much of this together by the end, which is strange, but nicely concluded.

I get the impression the more you know about French New Wave, Avant-Gard, black and white classics and sixties and seventies cinema in general, the more you will get out of this book. But that is not to say that it can't be enjoyed by everyone.

I thought I was capable of taking on the task of this book considering I'd read "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls", an historical account of Hollywood cinema from 1967 to 1980, but even Erickson was able to shed some light on the subject of cinema I hadn't known.

I have another one of his books, the now out of print "Arc D'x", sitting on my shelf and "to-read-list", which looks equally mysterious. This is a writer of immense imagination. Try him out if you're willing to penetrate the weird.

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

ZEROVILLE is a perfect 'double-feature' read with EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS. I would be pretty certain that novelist Erickson read this account of Hollywood in the 70s, as his novel is filled with ambiguous versions of real-life Hollywood figures of that era. One major character seems to be writer-director John Milius. Another is clearly Margot Kidder. Coincidentally, I recently read EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS, and I fear if I hadn't that Erickson's hazy references might have been confusing. Fortunately, the novel's surrealistic tone allows Erickson to get away with giving these characters a fuzzy identity.

Erickson is clearly a huge film fan and along with being a chronicle of Hollywood in the 70s we are also treated to various musings like a breathtaking analysis of the editing of A PLACE IN THE SUN.

Erickson's prose is mezmerizing, making this slight tale highly readable even as it feels a bit like a fever dream. I'm not sure if main character Vikar, who succeeds as a film editor, in spite of being both volatile and simple-minded, ever becomes fully believeable and remains a bit of a literary conceit.

The ending becomes increasingly surreal and ultimately, I'm not sure what it all means...but if you're a fan of both liteary fiction and Hollywood movies, this novel may strike a chord in you.

Anyone who is a film buff will love his book. Though it's quirky, it is compelling and hard to put down. Steve Erickson is a wonderful writer whose knowledge of the subject matter is very impressive.

There are several other well thought out reviews of this book posted here, so just adding a few thoughts.

No book is for everyone and it should be stressed that if you're not a big film fan (and as importantly a fan of classic films) this may not be the book for you. I know films, but even I found Erickson's style of mentioning a few things about a film but not sharing the movie's title got tiring, and the book is full of these.

I also found that the short chapters; averaging more than one per PAGE and sometimes containing no more than one sentence hurt the flow. Also, the chapters go to 227 and then back down to Zero (the first chapter starts with one meaning you need to count the title page containing Zero as the real first chapter) thus going full circle in (as another poster mentioned) an Aphaville reference.

I would also agree that if an author goes down the historical fiction route, they need to be sure of their facts as this can take the reader out of the magic of the book. For example, the main character, Vikar is quite familiar with the Paramount lot (where I spent some time) but astonished that when he leaves the Hollywood Forever Cemetery that he's next to the Paramount Lot. I mean, he wasn't drugged and taken to the cemetery so how is he not aware of the cross streets he's near? More directly, how could anyone that spent months at Paramount not know that one whole side of the lot borders this cemetery? Another reviewer mentioned several others problems as well.

But Erickson can write and the book keeps your attention. There are just some wonderful scenes that come out of Hollywood as if they were coming out of a film script, such as the lead character debating films with another cineaste who attempted to rob his apartment. Terrific stuff.

The most positive thing about the book is that Erickson takes chances leaving you with the feeling that you're in a dream with no knowledge of where the dream is going to take you. A very wonderful talent.

In college I double majored in Film and Creative Writing, so when I happened to stumble upon ZEROVILLE I felt I found the most perfect book I have ever come across. I felt like it was written FOR me. Not only does Erickson detail the GREAT gems of our cinematic history, he also weaves them in flawlessly in a mysterious and enlightening story. Vikar tends to vex us, as he so warns the people around us, but that is because he is a true innocent. Like the ghost of Montgomery Clift tells him "You got trust in your eyes, like you were just born", Vikar in essence, is a child, a child with a furious belief that movies are God. I recommend this book to ANYONE who loves movies, and I'm talking about GOOD movies, not the crap Hollywood tends to spew out, but the classic ones, the ones that really COULD and DID change the world. Great great wonderful amazing novel.