Critic's Choice
The back-stabbing! The bed-hopping! The battles for boffo box office! Cort captures all of Hollywood's most lovable qualities in this decadently detailed novel about a morally flimsy film producer's 50 years in showbiz. Cort is the right guy to deliver the goods: He is a slick, stylish writer who has produced such cash-gobbling crowd-pleasers as Three Men and a Baby and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. In detailing the life of A.J. Jastrow and his rise from gofer to mogul, Cort goes on an often sinister spin through his Rolodex to shine harsh light on the history of dream making.
The real fun comes when Cort's make-believe hero mingles with real celebs, keeping the reader guessing as to whether there's any truth in the fiction. Jastrow watches Steve McQueen go trigger-happy in a beach house, Mickey Rooney curse a blue streak and Michael Douglas give his backside some air; even Sam Kinison shows up, with a chain saw. The book is up-all-night entertaining, and with so many celebs appearing--whether they like it or not--you'd better believe that folks in La-La Land will be talking about this one. (Random House, $24.95)
BOTTOM LINE: Don't wait for the movie
BOTTOM LINE: Don't wait for the movie
By Jonathan Kellerman
A psycho is targeting up-and-coming artists and rockers in this classic whodunit sprinkled with hard-boiled lines and more twists than a plate of fusilli. Kellerman has an unusual knack for making his heroes and their personal lives as detailed and engaging as the crime solving. The case hits close to home for psychologist Alex Delaware, whose ex-lover Robin had repaired instruments for two of the slain performers. ("She's got great range," says Robin, describing one punk-rock singer. "From nails on chalkboard to nails on chalkboard even harder.") In his 17th Alex Delaware mystery, Kellerman introduces Eric Stahl, a spookily intense Army veteran with a Spartan mien and a sixth sense for spotting stolen cars. Watch your back, Alex: Stahl is so compelling, he may warrant his own series. (Ballantine, $26.95)
BOTTOM LINE: Artfully done
BOTTOM LINE: Artfully done
By Marian Keyes
Lovelorn, ambitious London magazine editor Lisa Edwards is certain she's poised for a big promotion at Femme. But when she finally gets tapped to run a new rag, she learns she'll have to launch it in Dublin. It's a fate worse than being stripped of her cell phone: To Lisa, Ireland is social purgatory populated by the likes of the overly made-up assistant who is "a devotee of the More Is More school of slapplication."
In Keyes's sixth novel the staffers' dramas unfold with dashes of satire: The publishers tell Lisa to make the upstart magazine "nothing too clever. Forget downbeat features about female circumcision." But stale jokes about Los Angelenos (news flash: They don't like to walk!) and sushi, which becomes an overblown metaphor for love, could have used some wasabi. (William Morrow, $24.95)
BOTTOM LINE: Not so fresh
BOTTOM LINE: Not so fresh
By Graham Swift
George Webb's father worked as a wedding photographer. George, though, is much the opposite: a private detective who takes photographs of adulterous spouses on their way to divorce. When one of his cases ends in murder, he finds himself falling in love with the murderess. This taut thriller gradually becomes a fine-tuned investigation of how even our simplest, most personal choices can spiral uncontrollably outward. Booker Prize-winner Swift (Last Orders) writes short, declarative sentences that do the work of entire oratories: "Make a little do for a lot. Don't expect much. This may be all you get." Readers, though, will get everything they could hope for. (Knopf, $24)
BOTTOM LINE: Luminous
BOTTOM LINE: Luminous
One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice
By Alex Kershaw
The tiny town of Bedford, Va. (pop. 3,000), had 28 soldiers on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944; 22 of them died. As Kershaw aptly puts it, "The buck a day [salary] had saved them from poverty. Now it had bought a ticket to the front lines." Kershaw doesn't wallow in cliches about heroism as he describes the carnage; few books describe the costs of warfare so soberly and so vividly. (Da Capo, $25)
BOTTOM LINE: Searing and unsettling
BOTTOM LINE: Searing and unsettling
By Jane Juska
What does a single, not-so-fit 66-year-old woman have to do to get a little action? For Juska, all it took was one ad in The New York Review of Books. The notice read: "Before I turn 67—next March—I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me."
Sex she wanted, sex she got--more than enough to fill this readable, if rambling, memoir. Juska doesn't hold back on details, but skip the stuff on Bach. (Villard, $23.95)
BOTTOM LINE: Make a date with a sexygenarian
BOTTOM LINE: Make a date with a sexygenarian
Don't go poolside without these dishy inside stories:
•The Cigarette Girl by Carol Wolper: Sexy romp about single girls.
•I'm Losing You by Bruce Wagner: Robert Altmanesque satire.
•On Spec by Richard Rushfield: Fake diaries of five showbiz players.
•The Other Side of Mulholland by Stephen Randall: Twin writer brothers fight for fame.
- Contributors:
- Sean Daly,
- Edward Karam,
- Lori Gottlieb,
- Alex Abramovich,
- Neil Graves,
- Pia Carton Nordlinger.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
