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Title: San Remo Drive: A Novel from Memory by Leslie Epstein ISBN: 1-59051-066-6 Publisher: Handsel Books Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Life and times in old Hollywood
Comment: Epstein has delivered a solid body of work over the years of his writing career. However, I didn't read San Remo Drive as part of his other work; rather, as a native Californian, I looked forward to revisiting those long ago days of clear blue skies, pristine coastline and miles of ripening orange groves.
This particular novel begins with the earliest years of the Jacobi family, after the father has died, when Lotte Jacobi does her best to keep her small family together. Mother and sons reminisce about family adventures, occasional fights and rubbing elbows with Hollywood icons. The two young brothers, Bartie and Richard, are certainly influenced by their parent's eccentric lifestyle and tendency toward dramatic confrontations. Richard, as an artist, interprets his unresolved issues on canvas, while Bartie writes movie scripts, boxes of them, forever trolling for a movie deal.
Lotte Jacobi proves a poor judge of character, especially when dealing with men. She makes some disastrous decisions that throw her family into hard times economically and emotionally. Still, emotions are Lotte's strong suit and her presence in both boy's lives is evident, as she directs their decisions and choices far into adulthood. They eventually lose their family home because of Lotte's inability to handle finances.
The second half of the novel is more cohesive and speaks to the strong influence of family on both sons. Richard Jacobi, now a successful artist, moves back into the family home with his wife, Marcia and two adopted American-Indian boys, hoping to recapture his fragile childhood memories. It would appear that he has married a woman much like his mother, raising his sons in the same dysfunctional atmosphere as his own childhood.
Richard has made his artistic reputation through a series of paintings of Madeline, a former next-door neighbor cum longtime lover and is preparing for a show of his work in Paris. However, he hasn't given enough thought to his wife's real jealousy of her supposed rival for Richard's affections, too willing to ignore the signs of trouble, much as the infamous Lotte modeled for him. Nor has his aging mother changed in any significant way, except perhaps that she is more tedious in her dotage. The characters may change, but the chaos endures.
Epstein painstakingly recounts the frenetic dialog, the hysteria and the arguments of generations of Jacobis. This family never gains emotional maturity, even as adults with young children. This novel has enjoyed rave reviews and The New York Times review calls it "one of the four best Hollywood novels ever written," with favorable comparison to Fitzgerald's Last Tycoon and Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run. San Remo Drive appears to be an acquired taste and Epstein fans will not be disappointed. Luan Gaines/2003.
Rating: 5
Summary: a success.
Comment: epstein does not shy away from the ugly, the raw, the core. with wit, eloquence, sensitivity, and a profound insightfulness unique to only a few writers, he has created a a masterpiece.
Rating: 5
Summary: Buy the book. Read the book. Love the book.
Comment: Leslie Epstein's novel of a childhood/adolescence in mid-century Hollywood as told by the novel's narrator, painter Richard Jacobi, is a mix of memory and fiction that illuminates expansive themes with excellent prose in a brave, sometimes controversial, always entertaining style that can be expected from a great writer who always seems to have a great story to tell.
The first half of the book is four tales that each focus on a life-changing event and are brought alive by the surrounding narration. In this section, the writing is direct and unapologetic, recounting instances both pleasurable and painful with a candor that at times borders on the dispassionate but nonetheless evokes a range of emotion: loneliness, irony, love, lust, betrayal-and at times caused me to laugh until I cried. Though comprised of separate instances going back and forth over different periods of time and involving very different circumstances, this first half strives for a level of wholeness and unity that, for the most part, is achieved.
The second half of the novel is set many years later and features Richard moving back to his old family house on San Remo Drive with his wife and adopted twin sons. From this point the novel flows much more smoothly, and the fact that it is one continuous story without chronology shifts doesn't hurt. For me, the highlight of the entire novel appears here, in the characterization of Richard's wife, Marcia. At the end of the day she is the most honest and true of all of them (and funny as hell, too). Her jealousy of Richard's ever-present muse, Madeline, and the events that unfold as a result are at once hilarious, shocking, and complex, and above all relevant to everyone who, as human nature often demands, gives too much of themselves to too many people.
I enjoyed the book immensely as a lovely tie-together of past, present and future, of homage to family and the effect it has on art (both fictional and real), and of identity, love and life through generations.
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Title: Still Holding : A Novel of Hollywood by Bruce Wagner ISBN: 0743243374 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: King of the Jews: A Novel by Leslie Epstein ISBN: 1590510798 Publisher: Handsel Books Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Pandaemonium: A Novel by Leslie Epstein ISBN: 0312156227 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Fortress of Solitude : A Novel by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0385500696 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: L'Affaire by Diane Johnson ISBN: 052594740X Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: 25 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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