First published 1983
Tod Hackett works as a set designer at a Los Angeles film studio, a talented young artist from Yale who finds himself surrounded by Hollywood's manufactured fantasies. From his office window he watches costumed actors playing soldiers flee across the lot while a frantic director chases them with a megaphone. Walking the streets after work, Tod observes the locals dressed in elaborate sporting clothes they wear for show rather than function. The fat woman in the yachting cap heads to the grocery store, not the marina. The man in the Norfolk jacket returns from his insurance office, not the mountains. In this world where appearance matters more than reality, Tod becomes obsessed with Faye, a beautiful aspiring actress who works as a call girl. His brilliant artistic mind cannot win her affection. He lacks the looks and money that might buy her attention. His growing passion turns into frustration, then rage, as Hollywood's cult of celebrity consumes everything around him.
Genres: fiction, art, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Los Angeles
Period: 20th-century
204 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Signet Classic
Content warnings: mental-illness