- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; Reissue edition (Sep 30 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679781358
- ISBN-13: 978-0679781356
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 13 x 1.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 222 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (120 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #383,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Yes, it's "that" Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke the actor. In this slim debut novel, he tells a coming-of-age tale of a fairly unpleasant young actor from Texas named William who lives in Manhattan and is working his way through an ugly little relationship with a singer/songwriter named Sarah. William's parents married young and split up early and he's not too happy with the world at large. Sarah can't quite make heads or tails of her mother. The pair has sex in the bathroom and talks quite a bit about their relationship. It all has a certain ring of truth, but at this point it's probably safe to say that Hawke's movie agent will probably make a better living off the young actor/writer than Hawke's literary agent.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Player of confused but adorable Gen X Romeos in films like Reality Bites and Before Sunrise, Hawke, 25, is easily conjured up as a stand-in for 21-year-old William Harding, the disaffected narrator of this slim first novel, a boy-meets-girl, girl-dumps-boy saga set in a grungy New York of aspiring actors, writers and singers. That William, a college dropout and budding actor, falls fast and hard for Sarah Wingfield, who fronts a band, teaches preschool and is a bit "funny looking," comes as a revelation to him, given his history of using his good looks for quick sex. Sarah casts William's sexual yearnings?and his white trash boyhood?into sharp relief by reading Adrienne Rich, toting a list of rape statistics and refusing to sleep with him. Their doomed romance is intercut with William's memories of his parents' breakup, of talks with his best friend and of his overheated teen relationship with Samantha, who still flits in and out of his life. When Sarah suddenly, inexplicably rejects him after William returns from making a movie in Paris, he descends into self-loathing and homosexual panic?and trashes his apartment. His callow cynicism about women and his flattened out, '90s rendition of Holden Caulfield ("Samantha wanted to have sex. She wasn't doing me any goddamn favors") grow wearisome. But Hawke's emotionally raw account of a world inescapably contracted is oddly affecting and sure to make many a teenage heart go pit-a-pat. Paperback rights to Vintage; audio rights to Time Warner AudioBooks; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
worth the time,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hottest State: A Novel (Paperback)
this book was more than i anticipated, Excellent character development pulled me into the book and kept my interest throughout, the binding elemets in this story are as life like and realistic. I read this book over the course of one weekend, certainly worth sitting down and getting lost in the pages. The ending left something to be desired, but who is to say that isn't what Hawke was intending when he wrote the book. This book comes highly recommended.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An intelligent doomed love story,
By I ain't no porn writer (author, "Crippled Dreams") - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Hottest State: A Novel (Paperback)
I'm a big fan of films like Dead Poet's Society, Reality Bites, and Before Sunrise, so I picked up this book. Ethan Hawke proves himself a competent writer in this first novel. His narrative persona is observant, believable, smart, and honest. He understands young love, and how a young guy thinks. In this story of a goodlooking young actor (who I think is perhaps Hawke's alter ego), we meet 21-year-old rising big-shot actor William who falls for a nobody, and she's the kind of girl he doesn't usually go for (she's not pretty). Yet he totally falls in love with her personality and intellect. There's just something about her. But there are plenty of bumps in this relationship, and it doesn't work out. I recommend this to young and old who like to read about the romantic loves and disappointments of young people. David Rehak
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very well written, and a great story.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hottest State: A Novel (Paperback)
if i could, i would give this book 4 and a half stars, but i can't, so i'm going to give the author the benefit of the doubt. Ethan Hawke may be a great actor, but i want to leave that out of this review, he is an author, and an extremely talented one at that. this book is a very quick read, it can be read in a day, although it took me two, and throughout the reading you will be totally absorbed in the story. ethan does a tremendous job of describing the total despair you can feel when you're without the one person who can truly make you happy. I hope he writes much more.
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