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If you loved
Books like Hollywood
A booze-soaked, deadpan stumble through the glittering, absurd machinery of the film industry. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Hollywood.
- booze-soaked
- absurdist
- weary
- gritty
- 01
Ham on Rye
Charles Bukowski
A brutally honest, darkly funny plunge into a bruised adolescence where cynicism and cheap booze are the only shields against a harsh world.
- 02
Factotum
Charles Bukowski
A beer-soaked, deadpan drift through the soul-crushing drudgery of mid-century American wage labor.
- 03
You get so alone at times that it just makes sense
Bukowski
A late-night, whiskey-soaked meditation on the quiet absurdity and profound isolation of modern life.
- 04
The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West · 1983
A feverish, apocalyptic descent into the rotting, desperate underbelly of Hollywood's golden age.
- 05
Hollywood Babylon
Kenneth Anger
A lurid, gleefully wicked tour through the rotting foundations of the world's most glamorous company town.
- 06
Play It as It Lays
Joan Didion
A sun-bleached, razor-sharp descent into the hollow core of 1960s Hollywood and the fractured psyche of a woman with nothing left to lose.
- 07
L.A. Confidential
James Ellroy
A relentless, staccato plunge into a neon-lit, blood-soaked underbelly where everyone is guilty of something.
- 08
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Horace McCoy · 1977
A relentless, neon-lit descent into the grueling spectacle of American desperation.
- 09
Valley of the dolls
Jacqueline Susann · 1966
A glittering, pill-popping descent into the glamorous and ruthless underbelly of mid-century show business.
- 10
Dreams from Bunker Hill
John Fante · 1985
A manic, sun-baked hustle through 1930s Los Angeles, fueled by cheap diners, towering ego, and the desperate hunger to create.
- 11
Get Shorty
Elmore Leonard
A razor-sharp, sun-drenched joyride where the mob meets the movies, fueled by deadpan wit and effortless cool.
- 12
Slow days, fast company
Eve Babitz
A sun-drenched, martini-soaked love letter to the glamorous decay of 1970s Los Angeles.
