Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
The First Novel By Quentin Tarantino
-
-
3.8 • 18 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited first work of fiction - at once hilarious, delicious, and brutal - is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award-winning film.
RICK DALTON - Once he had his own TV series, but now Rick's a washed-up villain-of-the week drowning his sorrows in whiskey sours. Will a phone call from Rome save his fate or seal it?
CLIFF BOOTH - Rick's stunt double, and the most infamous man on any movie set because he's the only one there who might have gotten away with murder . . .
SHARON TATE - She left Texas to chase a movie-star dream, and found it. Sharon's salad days are now spent on Cielo Drive, high in the Hollywood Hills.
CHARLES MANSON - The ex-con's got a bunch of zonked-out hippies thinking he's their spiritual leader, but he'd trade it all to be a rock 'n' roll star.
HOLLYWOOD 1969 - YOU SHOULDA BEEN THERE
Customer Reviews
One for the true believers
Author
American auteur who needs no introduction. Various of his screenplays have been published. This is his first actual novel. Novelisation of his most recent screenplay is a more accurate description.
In brief
Late sixties Hollywood as seen through the eyes of movie and more recently TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DeCaprio in the movie), whose career is on the skids, his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt in the movie), real life (and death) young starlet Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie in the movie), and Charles Manson, wannabe rockstar turned counterculture spiritual leader who only appeared fleetingly in the movie but was ever present in the background. Frequent flashbacks that provide backstory of the protagonists, including the major one: Hollywood itself. Numerous information dumps about the history of cinema and film makers revered by Tarantino, which are occasionally interesting (how Polanski made Rosemary’s Baby) but more often annoyingly disjointing. Did I mention the ending is different from the movie? Well, it is, and no, I’m not going to tell you. Read the book yourself.
Writing
Mostly first person present tense from the POVs of the main protagonists, like a screenplay, with info dumps that are third person omniscient narrator (guess who?). Rick and Cliff are the best developed characters, as in the movie, although the latter has a nastier edge that Brad Pitt provided on screen. Tarantino’s take on Charlie Manson is…Let’s call it interesting. The same stop-start, time travelling narrative prevails as in the movie.
Bottom line
If you’re a big Tarantino fan, you’ll probably want to read this. If, like me, you’ve been hoping for another Pulp Fiction since 1994 and continue to be disappointed, I’d give it a miss.
Tedious and pretentious
Tarantino loves to rub his extensive yet boring knowledge of Hollywood in the reader’s face. Long, rambling diatribes about who starred in what and under what director add nothing to an already-dull story peopled by an unlikeable cast.