This one goes in the "I'm glad I read it as part of my ongoing literary education, but I didn't actually enjoy it" pile. For fans of Beat writers, existential socal noir (Ross Macdonald, Raymond Chandler), and books featuring whiny protagonists who think their genius is unrecognized by idiots who are out to get them (Catcher in the Rye, Confederacy of Dunces). ( )

Very dated. I can see how this was exciting when it came out, and the connection to Chinatown and other noir stories and films, but it just feels a bit boring today ( )

ask my ass ( )

Los Angeles en la década de los treinta. Instalado en un sórdido hotel en los barrios marginales de la gran ciudad, el joven aprendiz de escritor Arturo Bandini lucha por la dura supervivencia diaria, mientras sueña con el triunfo artístico y económico tras haber conseguido publicar un relato en una pequeña revista. Guiado por su mentor y editor J. C. Hackmuth (inspirado en H. L. Mencken), Arturo proclama a quien quiera escucharle que es un genio de las letras, mientras se enfrenta a una compleja relación amorosa con Camilla, una chica mexicana que trabaja como camarera. Incapaz de mostrarle sus auténticos sentimientos, Arturo se ve abocado a una destructiva relación de amor-odio mientras sigue soñando con alcanzar la gloria.

I did not enjoy spending time with Arturo Bandini as a young near-destitute author in depression era Los Angeles. Everything he relates is so filtered through a self with the emotional intelligence of a gnat and only enough residual honesty to know when he is lying. His assumption that how he treats women is what they deserve is particularly distasteful, yet something in the language and the stuttering grasps at connection is compelling. ( )