I Should Have Stayed Home A Novel edition by Horace McCoy Literature Fiction eBooks
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McCoy’s classic, slyly funny novel about a pair of young actors trying to make it in a pitiless Hollywood
The Hollywood characters are all superficial and have no interest in anything but the movies. The book is not a crime novel, just an interesting portrayal of average people and what the desire for fame can do to them. Although the book was written years ago, it has a modern feel and universal appeal. A worthwhile read.
Tags : I Should Have Stayed Home: A Novel - Kindle edition by Horace McCoy. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading I Should Have Stayed Home: A Novel.,ebook,Horace McCoy,I Should Have Stayed Home: A Novel,Open Road Media
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Good read kept my intrest
This isn't as good as Nat West's Hollywood tale entitled Day of the Locust, but then nothing is. Nat West was in a different league as a writer, much higher on the scale, etc., but that shouldn't keep you from enjoying McCoy's take on LA LA.
I'm a McCoy fan from way back, and what's sad is there you are wanting him to be as good as West or Hemingway or Hammet, et al, as a writer, and there is just no way. Don't get me wrong, McCoy does the best that he can with the gifts that he had...and one simply has to settle for it. What may have hurt him as a writer early on is the fact he wrote for the pulps...but then again so did Raymond Chandler and he didn't end up anything less than a first rate type of novelist--even though he worked in the private ... genre.
Bottom line Enjoy McCoy for what he has to offer--and what he's got to offer isn't all that bad either. An easy read and a cautionary tale It's okay to have dreams, but don't throw your life away chasing after something that isn't likely to happen. And yet, we can relate who hasn't got a dream or two they would like to see happen? It's part of being human. Horace McCoy never made it as an actor in real life, the reason he came out to Hollywood in the first place, but he did end up working on over one hundred B-flicks as a screenwriter. With that many credits to his name one imagines the man was able to make a decent living, that's a lot better than the thousands of other lost dreamers roaming the streets of The Glitter Factory. Four stars is a fair appraisal. We remain a McCoy fan.
This book must be an early one for this author.
He's a better writer now
a Horace McCoy classic.
I expected a bit more. It was derivative, thin, and uninspired. Nathaniel West's "Day of the Locust" was much more interesting. The characters were stereotypical and could have been more developed.
I Should Have Stayed Home is a novella that attempts to be an expose of what really happens to all the youngsters who flocked to Hollywood in the 1930's with stars in their eyes. It has drunken parties, nude swimmers, a suicide, and interracial sexual relationships. Nothing out of the ordinary there in contemporary noir, but pretty racy stuff for it's time.
The story revolves around Ralph Carson, an aspiring actor whose thick southern accent renders him unable to be cast in anything. Only after his (Platonic) roommate, Mona Matthews, curses a judge in court who is sentencing a friend does Ralph get any attention from the Hollywood establishment. Of course, it is from a rich nymphomaniac, who promises Ralph much and delivers only to satisfy herself. This gives McCoy free reign to critique the parties, the private lives of the wealthy, and all the hangers on who know that Hollywood is completely phoney, but still work to make the "star making machinery" roll along.
I thought the scenes of Ralph alone with his wealthy paramour foreshadowed the movie Sunset Boulevard in many eerie ways. The writing is crisp and flows quickly. McCoy certainly knows his way around a typewriter and a plot. If you're interested in a well drawn sketch of Hollywood in the Depression, this is a good book to pick up.
McCoy's book tells a very familiar story (I imagine it was already a pretty well worn tale even when this was first published) small town person travels to big city to make it big; small town person becomes corrupted by the amoral city; small town person survives (or doesn't) and lessons are learned. It's a fun read, especially if you enjoy the hard boiled lit of this era. The big fault is that it just hasn't aged well. Parts of it are very funny when they shouldn't be at all. Compare that to something like Hammett's The Thin Man, which holds up all these years later and is still funny when it's supposed to be.
I really liked this book. Its an interesting 1930s novel about the corrupting influence of Hollywood on a pair of wannabe movie extras by the author of THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? The main character is a country boy from Georgia who doesn't want to learn to act and is content to sit around waiting to be "discovered" and molded into a movie star. Desperate for money, one of the minor characters is driven to shoplifting and eventually to suicide.
The Hollywood characters are all superficial and have no interest in anything but the movies. The book is not a crime novel, just an interesting portrayal of average people and what the desire for fame can do to them. Although the book was written years ago, it has a modern feel and universal appeal. A worthwhile read.
I Should Have Stayed Home A Novel edition by Horace McCoy Literature Fiction eBooks
I really liked this book. Its an interesting 1930s novel about the corrupting influence of Hollywood on a pair of wannabe movie extras by the author of THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? The main character is a country boy from Georgia who doesn't want to learn to act and is content to sit around waiting to be "discovered" and molded into a movie star. Desperate for money, one of the minor characters is driven to shoplifting and eventually to suicide.The Hollywood characters are all superficial and have no interest in anything but the movies. The book is not a crime novel, just an interesting portrayal of average people and what the desire for fame can do to them. Although the book was written years ago, it has a modern feel and universal appeal. A worthwhile read.
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Tags : I Should Have Stayed Home: A Novel - Kindle edition by Horace McCoy. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading I Should Have Stayed Home: A Novel.,ebook,Horace McCoy,I Should Have Stayed Home: A Novel,Open Road Media
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I Should Have Stayed Home A Novel edition by Horace McCoy Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Good read kept my intrest
This isn't as good as Nat West's Hollywood tale entitled Day of the Locust, but then nothing is. Nat West was in a different league as a writer, much higher on the scale, etc., but that shouldn't keep you from enjoying McCoy's take on LA LA.
I'm a McCoy fan from way back, and what's sad is there you are wanting him to be as good as West or Hemingway or Hammet, et al, as a writer, and there is just no way. Don't get me wrong, McCoy does the best that he can with the gifts that he had...and one simply has to settle for it. What may have hurt him as a writer early on is the fact he wrote for the pulps...but then again so did Raymond Chandler and he didn't end up anything less than a first rate type of novelist--even though he worked in the private ... genre.
Bottom line Enjoy McCoy for what he has to offer--and what he's got to offer isn't all that bad either. An easy read and a cautionary tale It's okay to have dreams, but don't throw your life away chasing after something that isn't likely to happen. And yet, we can relate who hasn't got a dream or two they would like to see happen? It's part of being human. Horace McCoy never made it as an actor in real life, the reason he came out to Hollywood in the first place, but he did end up working on over one hundred B-flicks as a screenwriter. With that many credits to his name one imagines the man was able to make a decent living, that's a lot better than the thousands of other lost dreamers roaming the streets of The Glitter Factory. Four stars is a fair appraisal. We remain a McCoy fan.
This book must be an early one for this author.
He's a better writer now
a Horace McCoy classic.
I expected a bit more. It was derivative, thin, and uninspired. Nathaniel West's "Day of the Locust" was much more interesting. The characters were stereotypical and could have been more developed.
I Should Have Stayed Home is a novella that attempts to be an expose of what really happens to all the youngsters who flocked to Hollywood in the 1930's with stars in their eyes. It has drunken parties, nude swimmers, a suicide, and interracial sexual relationships. Nothing out of the ordinary there in contemporary noir, but pretty racy stuff for it's time.
The story revolves around Ralph Carson, an aspiring actor whose thick southern accent renders him unable to be cast in anything. Only after his (Platonic) roommate, Mona Matthews, curses a judge in court who is sentencing a friend does Ralph get any attention from the Hollywood establishment. Of course, it is from a rich nymphomaniac, who promises Ralph much and delivers only to satisfy herself. This gives McCoy free reign to critique the parties, the private lives of the wealthy, and all the hangers on who know that Hollywood is completely phoney, but still work to make the "star making machinery" roll along.
I thought the scenes of Ralph alone with his wealthy paramour foreshadowed the movie Sunset Boulevard in many eerie ways. The writing is crisp and flows quickly. McCoy certainly knows his way around a typewriter and a plot. If you're interested in a well drawn sketch of Hollywood in the Depression, this is a good book to pick up.
McCoy's book tells a very familiar story (I imagine it was already a pretty well worn tale even when this was first published) small town person travels to big city to make it big; small town person becomes corrupted by the amoral city; small town person survives (or doesn't) and lessons are learned. It's a fun read, especially if you enjoy the hard boiled lit of this era. The big fault is that it just hasn't aged well. Parts of it are very funny when they shouldn't be at all. Compare that to something like Hammett's The Thin Man, which holds up all these years later and is still funny when it's supposed to be.
I really liked this book. Its an interesting 1930s novel about the corrupting influence of Hollywood on a pair of wannabe movie extras by the author of THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? The main character is a country boy from Georgia who doesn't want to learn to act and is content to sit around waiting to be "discovered" and molded into a movie star. Desperate for money, one of the minor characters is driven to shoplifting and eventually to suicide.
The Hollywood characters are all superficial and have no interest in anything but the movies. The book is not a crime novel, just an interesting portrayal of average people and what the desire for fame can do to them. Although the book was written years ago, it has a modern feel and universal appeal. A worthwhile read.
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