Eve's Hollywood (New York Review Books Classics)

eve sweeps me away with her prose. i am not into los angeles history or culture all that much, tho' i really enjoyed mike davis's histories of el lay. but no one compares to eve babitz. she seduces you on the page. i can sit down intending to read a few pages and then catch myself forty pages on, still impressed by her sentences, by her images, by her reading background which draws in great writers from all over the outfield and the dugout. she is full of names dropped, but doesn't come off as gossiping somehow. i guess i have just fallen in love with eve babitz on the page. read this, then her other books too--especially her essays.

I love the Hollywood theme in the book. My favorite characters. They are so great.

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.

Babitz grew up in Hollywood, seemed to be in a constant search for herself from junior high school to, perhaps, the present, and gained much public attention for her relationships with the famous and notorious, both rich and poor. For this book Babitz chooses a selection of themes and presents her recollections as they come to her. Unlike many writers, she claims that this is a natural and easy process; everything just fell together naturally. If that is true, this might be describes as stream of consciousness writing, but that kind of writing is shallow. Babitz produces some philosophical observations on what is important in life, and what is not. Colors are important; they are alive and interact with her. Some of this might be the result of various drugs, LSD being the most important. Some observations may come from the “Green Death”, an alcoholic stimulant. Some might come from self induced hypnotic states. There is no depth to the observations, but rich and plentiful examples let the reader participate in the exploration for meaning. Two examples: (1) “Cowards are the fittest, it must be, since they’re so adept at avoiding extinction.” (Kindle loc 1256) and (2) “There are only three things to 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. Its expense lies in knowing that someone’s having fun on Mt. Olympus without you and that should you try to stay there always. Your brain will settle into a puddle around your sinuses and you will die.” (Kindle loc 1674) Without some reader shared experiences this book would not move along well at all except for two things. Firstly, many of the experiences are so far outside the “normal life” (and this is one of her points) that the reader looks forward to going from one sensational experience to another. Secondly, her style of writing is entertaining. Babitz does not always follow grammar conventions. A fast reader will sometimes stumble, go back, and ask the question “What did I just read?” And “What did that mean?” I believe Babitz would reply to these questions with just one word “Exactly.” A phrasing example, when writing of not waiting to eat taquitos: “I suppose I should have held my horses and waited until I was properly ensconced, but I was triumphed over.” (Kindle location 3257) For Babitz, the center of human life as we know it is Los Angeles. There are unfortunate money grubbers who choose to exist in New York; she knows this because she sacrificed a year of her life to go there and observe their efforts. Rome is the one outstanding example of a possible way of life that is non-LA. For readers who have experiences in these three places, or are amateur paparazzi, this book is a great read. For everybody else it is only good (plus).

An amazing woman, personality and writer documenting an unbelievable life and times. She captures the culture of the city during a pivotal period in Los Angeles history as few others have. There’s nothing like it. Don’t miss it!

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

Sassy, enjoyable read.

Irrelevant stories of irrilevant people.

"Dias Lentos, Encontros Fugazes", que resenhei por aqui há poucos meses, foi sem dúvida uma das melhores - senão a melhor - leituras que fiz este ano, então nada mais natural do que eu ter partido, faminto, para procurar outras obras de autoria de Eve Babitz. Acabei me decidindo por este aqui, "Eve's Hollywood", seu livro de estreia, publicado em 1974 e infelizmente inédito no Brasil. O livro segue mais ou menos a estrutura de "Dias Lentos", reunindo uma coleção de relatos semibiográficos, escritos no estilo único de Babitz, com aquela naturalidade de quem não tem papas na língua, repleta de uma ironia fina que é simplesmente irresistível. A diferença, aqui, é que há um descompasso um pouco maior entre os relatos: enquanto alguns têm mais de 20 páginas, outros ocupam às vezes menos de uma página. Talvez por ser o primeiro livro da autora, ela possa ter feito um "catadão" de todos os textos que havia escrito até o momento - até por isso este livro é bem mais extenso que "Dias Lentos". Outra diferença perceptível é que aqui há muitos textos relatando a adolescência/infância de Babitz, crescendo em Los Angeles nos anos 50 e início dos 60 - estes relatos, inclusive, rendem alguns dos melhores textos do livro. Alguns críticos de Babitz tendem a reduzir, muitas vezes, sua obra à "literatura de mulherzinha", devido ao fato de ela escrever sobre festas & restaurantes & drogas & encontros com famosos ou aspirantes a famosos, mas a verdade é que poucos escritores conseguem partir desses temas aparentemente superficiais e entregar reflexões tão certeiras sobre a vida, a morte, o amor e outras questões universais quanto Eve Babitz. Há um texto do livro que começa com uma reflexão banal: "O que poderia Janis Joplin ter feito em um domingo à tarde em Los Angeles, ao invés de ficar injetando heroína em um quarto de motel"? A autora parte disso para entregar uma descrição minuciosa sobre como chegar, e de que forma aproveitar, a sua banquinha de tacos favorita de LA, localizada não muito distante do Landmark Motel onde Janis foi encontrada sem vida. E faz disso puro suco de Literatura, com L maiúsculo. Sim, continuo apaixonado por Eve Babitz. "Uma vez eu vi Cary Grant de perto. Ele era lindo. Ele se parecia exatamente com Cary Grant."

She can write! Should be just trashy but isn't. Fascinating, confident, slyly sad from a distance but also good fun.