Norman Mailer hailed Don Carpenter's last novel, A Couple of Comedians, as "the best novel I've ever read about contemporary show biz." Lyn Tornabene called it "marvelous, exotic, and unforgettable." The same qualities that have won this author such high praise in the past are again present in his new novel, which Kirkus Reviews calls a "a standout." In it, Carpenter takes us inside the motion-picture industry--and into the ambitious, obsessive lives of its producers, writers, actors, and deal makers.
At its center are Jerry Rexford, a talented but naive, shy young man struggling to break into The Business as a writer; Rick Heidelberg, a "young Turk" with one big success behind him, desperate to prove that he's more than a "one-picture wonder boy"; and, topping this group, Alexander Hellstrom, a middle-aged mogul who, in the midst of the most passionate affair of his life, begins to wonder if it all really matters....
What happens to them--and the people who surround them--unfolds in a novel about Hollywood written with wit, pace, and, above all, the authenticity that have become Don Carpenter's trademarks.
(from front jacket flap)
