Eve's Hollywood (New York Review Books Classics)

New York Review Classics is known for keeping underground classics in print and is behind the recent republication of Eve Babitz's first two books: Eve's Hollywood and Slow Days, Fast Company:The World, The Flesh and L.A. I thought these books would be good preparation/background for an upcoming trip to Southern California. So I started with Eve's Hollywood (1974), which is something akin to a memoir, but shrouded in fiction. I believe some names and incidents were change dot protect the innocent. Babitz comes from a talented family and is unabashedly proud of L.A. and resents the depictions from the like s of Joan Didion and Nathanael West who see it as a sort of cultural wasteland. Her father was a violinist who worked on movie scores for Fox and her mother was an artist. Stravinsky was her godfather and knew everyone from Jim Morrison to members of the Manson Family. Much of this is about her formative years at Hollywood High, an abortive stint in New York, her impressions and aspirations about life in California in the 60s and 70s. There is a lot of name dropping and several memorable observations throughout the book. She had this to say about cocaine: There are only three thing sot say about cocaine. One, there is no such thing as enough. Two, it will never be as good as the first time. Three, those first two facts constitute a tragedy of expense in ways that can't be experienced unless you've had cocaine.Here's her defense of L.A.: It takes a certain kind of innocence to like L.A., anyway. It requires a certain plain happiness inside to be happy in L.A., to choose it and be happy here.It is a smart, entertaining, profound, inspiring, and sometimes funny. I particularity liked the section called "The Landmark" in which she contemplates Janis Joplin's O.D. in which she suggests instead of shooting up in her hotel room she should have gone out for taquitos-one of life's great pleasures (something that I can appreciate as an ex-pat, it is extremely difficult to find good Mexican food outside of North America). She even includes a hand drawn map to show readers how to get to her favorite stand on Olvera Street.

After being a Joan Didion devotee for years and years, I stumbled on Eve's work and was spellbound by her version of the very Hollywood that Joan had lived in at the same time. This book showcases Babitz's whip smart wit as she rubbed elbows with Hollywood's elite and hangers on alike.

Eve Babitz seems to have known where she was going --- or of where she didn't want to go, even before she did. The book is fun, wild, crazy, insightful and a beautiful social commentary on our world and of a young girl growing up to be an even more incredible woman. Warning: no pictures. Best go to her on the internet and be prepared. Oh what Marcel Duchamp came to.

Funny, just yesterday a friend returned Eve‘s books to me. Saying the same thing I did, she totally gets it, she’s a great writer, her view points are spot on. Writing is Witty. Love eves books. How does she ever remember exactly her teenage and young 20s mind? And how does she express it so that I remember exactly! Amazing

She can't write poorly, but this is pretty close to a C overall, with patches of B+. If you want to read her at her best, get the ... 1979? 1980? article from Rolling Stone. It is brilliant.

A series of increasingly remote, self-important and ambiguous vignettes....I didn’t mind reading this, but ultimately it made no sense at all.

It seemed that the second half of the book was a series of essays. I enjoyed some chapters. Other chapters were a labor to get through. Don't know if I'd read another of her books.

Excellent! Bubbling with vitality. Delightfully smart and honest. A feast for mind and soul. Highly recommended.I love Eve Babitz.

This book is sort of autobiographical but it reads like a combination of Bridget Jones Diary, written by a strange combination of Hunter S. Thompson and Dashiell Hammett. It's about growing up in L.A. in the 50s/60s.It's one of the best books I've ever read.There I said it.I had never heard of it until it came up in an episode of the Backlisted podcast, which - as an aside - I recommend if you enjoy reading. Although prepare to find yourself spending money each week.It well-written throughout but occasionally it smacks you around the head with something so brilliant, beautiful or funny that you want to underline it or save it so you can pretend you said it. It's a series of short stories really, rather than a novel but that shouldn't stop you reading it. I can see myself re-reading this again and again. And lending it to friends. It's already high on my recommendations list.Babitz is, to quote the blurb on the back of the book, 'Journalist, party girl, bookworm, artist, muse...' There's a picture out there of her, naked, playing Duchamp at chess. This is a woman who has seen things and can tell you about those things in a way that sparkles like a glass of champagne caught in the sunlight.Read it. It's marvellous.

Written in the prose style known as ' Imbecile' and as such, is unreadable. However, when placed in the wood-burner, it makes for a minute or two of good heat. Recommendation: only buy this book if you're cold.

The blurb calls Eve Babitz ‚journalist, party girl, bookworm, artist, muse‘ and there are without any doubt lots of good stories in her life. The book sometimes reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood during the sixties and seventies, and the anecdotes are glamourous and witty. Still, I mostly felt like an outsider who wasn’t quite in on the joke and didn’t know the right people.

Wer dieses Buch oder gar diese Frau nicht kennt, kann sich freuen. Eine seltene Entdeckung erwartet denjenigen.

Delivered super fast. Great read.