- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Henry Holt & Co (P); Reprint edition (November 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0805055924
- ISBN-13: 978-0805055924
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 14 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Startling images of Hollywood decadence and personal turmoil pervade this prodigious, literate tale of Oedipal conflict amid the pretense and excesses of the contemporary American film industry. In the tradition of Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust , the novel evokes a landscape of unabashed perversion and atavism, thinly cloaked by the glamour of the silver screen. Narrator and protagonist Will Blake is a third-generation insider, a spiritual drifter who sleepwalked into movie stardom with a natural talent that has earned him three Oscar nominations. Reeling from the breakup of his marriage to world-renowned actress Zebra Dunn, nursing the permanent wound of his brother's suicide, locked in dangerous conflict with his father, Clement (a violent, monomaniacal producer), Will becomes increasingly unstable as he traces the nearly invisible line separating reality from illusion in his bizarre hometown. Smith ( The Lives of the Dead ) writes relentlessly, in waves of rich, elaborate metaphor full of fresh insights and probing speculations about a milieu so often treated superficially. Rather than invoking real-life stars, he creates his own fully imagined movieland characters, who help make the novel's vision convincing and complete. His agile, dynamic prose captures both the deep reveries and the grotesque crucibles of Will's story. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Like his troubled main character, author Smith ( Crystal River , LJ 7/93) isn't adept at "riding the chaos" in his new novel, despite three glowingly reviewed books. Set in modern Hollywood, this novel suffers from a hackneyed, Freudian-delight plot--a famous-in-spite-of-himself actor son faces off against tough faded mogul father who has fallen in love/lust with his son's beautiful movie-star wife. The action derails the narrative into long pages of blocky description; instead of the symbolic, corelike "Chimney Rock," the book should have been called "Mesa." Much of the language here is brilliant and the imagery imaginative, but much of it isn't, and for the first time Smith comes across as downright wordy. The main characters are entirely too familiar, with a surprisingly tiresome "free spirit" heroine unfortunately the focus of all the fuss. A marginal purchase.
- David Bartholomew, NYPL
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- David Bartholomew, NYPL
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The beauty in all things terrible, April 5 2000
By J. A. Bellamy "bluejaye" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Chimney Rock: A Novel (Paperback)
Charlie Smith is a master wordsmith. With mere words on a page, he is able to do what so many other respected, talented, and successful writers are unable to do: teleport you not just into another place filled with other people, but into an idea. Fifty percent of any Smith book is theme. Just as we spend so much of our day feeling things abstractly, taking in smells that conjure up long lost memories, and existing in what feels sometimes like a void; Charlie Smith unleashes this part of his characters. Will Blake is a Hollywood actor birthing himself out of his existential crisis and can see and finally accept, distantly, the beautiful in the terrible. The end result is sweet, dark, scary, and insightful. I found myself rereading passages just because I wanted to. I began to dream about the people and the cities and the colors of all the flowers that populate Chimney Rock. Its the kind of book that reveals the true power of a gifted writer.On the other hand, Charlie Smith is not for everyone. Inexperienced readers need not apply. If a good yarn is all your after, have a friend tell you the story. Charlie's prose is difficult. His sentences are long and crooked. They sometimes form into chains that lead to dramatically different places than they began. A man may walk into a restaraunt and say hello to a woman, but her response could occur three pages later with this type of writing. Its lyrical but indirect. Or, direct spiritually, but not narratively. Nonetheless, its the difficult roads that lead to the grandest rewards.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
poetic but excessive, May 29 1999
By sreed99342@aol.com - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Chimney Rock: A Novel (Paperback)
I have not read any of Charlie Smith's other work, so I can't compare this to previous efforts. His writing is poetic, and truly impressive in short bursts. But over the long haul, the poetry interferes with the prose. Words and phrases seem to be chosen more for their sounds and rhythms than for their contributions to plot, and dialogue can be stilted. Imagery is vivid but occasionally self-indulgent. The storyline is interesting at first but eventually grows gaudy and distasteful. The power of Smith's language is his greatest strength, but it is a strength better suited to poetry than novels.
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