Steve Erickson

Whoa, this is a seriously good novel, about Hollywood and the movies. In 1969, Vikar Jerome arrives in Hollywood just after the Manson murders. "On Vikar's head is tattooed the left and right lobes of his brain. One lobe is occupied by an extreme close-up of Elizabeth Taylor and the other by Montgomery Clift, their faces barely apart, lips barely apart..." Vikar is kind of an idiot-savant about the movies. Erickson weaves Vikar's story with that of the films of the 70s, as Vikar discovers a very strange truth about film. A pretty captivating book, some great images in it, and very fine writing.

This is a Hollywood novel, though Erickson (http://www.laweekly.com/2008-07-03/la-life/contortionist-supreme/) says he doesn't think about it that way. I reminded me of David Thompson's The Whole Equation, as it does encompass pretty much everything about the movies: the stars, the business, the technology, and especially how our dreams and the movies intersect.… (meer)

Recently I gave myself a treat by buying a stack of cheap second hand books off eBay. They had all been on my to read list for a long time, most of them so long that I’d forgotten precisely why I intended to read them in the first place. The summaries all seemed intriguing, however, so I decided to trust my past self. I must say, the first three have been rather a let down, this one especially so. From the blurb, I anticipated that this novel would be a literary examination of the apocalyptic atmosphere of the millennium. Perhaps it thought it was, but what actually dominated it was men sexually abusing women. All the main female characters were sex workers at one time or another and horrible things happened to all of them. The main male character, the so-called Occupant, was a rapist. He rapes several women during the novel, although these are not explicitly acknowledged as rapes by the narrative. Frankly, I have a big problem with that. Although the writing was good quality and the complex looping chronology quite interesting, I did not see why so much sexual abuse was remotely necessary. In short, all the male characters were hateful and all the female characters suffered for it, to no literary end. It’s so depressing to start a novel full of hope that it will be enjoyable and enlightening, only to be blindsided by intense and sustained misogyny. Just like bloody Hemingway all over again. The two stars are for the intricate chronology, which deserved to be populated with better character arcs.… (meer)

Zeroville is an almost dreamlike meander through Hollywood... the neighbourhood, the business, the history, and the fantasy. Vikar, a sometimes violent, always film-obsessed, perhaps autistic young man with tattoos of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift emblazoned on his shaved head is our guide.

We follow his journey beginning on the day that he arrives in LA in 1969 amid the background of hippies and surfers and the Manson murders through his becoming part of the studio system over the next decade and a half and watching him and his contemporaries navigate the turbulent years of Hollywood studios when everything was changing quickly.

This book is a veritable feast for any serious cinephile. It is overflowing with film references, Hollywood history, and thinly veiled characters. I absolutely love the movies but I don't consider myself anywhere near an expert and I enjoyed all the references and had fun figuring out who was who and what was what. I imagine that my many film savant friends would be in heaven with that part of it.

While the novel follows a standard timeline through the years, Erickson manages to make the sum of the parts feel diaphanous and perpetual much like the philosophy of Vikar in that "all the scenes of a movie are really happening at the same time. No scene really leads to the next, all scenes lead to each other. . . . 'Continuity' is one of the myths of film."

It wasn't my favourite Erickson novel but it still had that 'bit darker, bit deeper' quality which I can count on him for.… (meer)