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Star People
A novel of love, fame and Valley of the Dolls meets L.A. Confidential , for the Heat generationSex, drugs, diva if you're on the A list, you can get away with murder ... but there's still one taboo left in Hollywood. If you're an all-action movie star hero, and you're gay, then your home is in the closet. End of discussion.Matt Walsh is at the very top of the Hollywood ladder. He easily commands $20 million per film, and every one is a box office smash. But Walsh has a his lover Billy West, a rent-boy with the fragility of Monroe and the body of Brad Pitt. When British hack Simon Fowler is sent out to write a grovelling vanity piece on Walsh, he unearths the star's secret life, and a story that could destroy him. Walsh has a long way to fall, and he could take a lot of people with him.STAR PEOPLE hops over the velvet rope and points its telephoto lens at a cast of stars, hookers, paparazzi and scarier-than-hell PR bitches. The result is a smart, fast-paced and wildly entertaining novel about love, fame, jealousy . . . and murder.
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 26, 2018
Although a love story is one of the driving forces of the book, we actually read very little about it. The other is a thirst for revenge on a psychopathic level. This isn't really explored, either.
Instead Burston chooses to focus on the workings of the Hollywood machine, the hypocrisy, the back stabbings - an environment of which he has some insight as a former journalist. It all seems quite convincing. Although recognisable types, the characters feel reasonably real and credible.
Unfortunately, the book is let down by the writing. For the sake of trying to be amusing, Burston has recourse to gross exaggerations in his descriptions and the whole book is suffused with a short of bitter superficiality that makes it less palatable than it could have been. There are also a few terrible sentences, monumental clangers that a good editor should not have let pass, or a good writer put to paper in the first place.
Still it's fluffy and mostly fun (despite a dark undercurrent) and will help while a few mindless hours.
Instead Burston chooses to focus on the workings of the Hollywood machine, the hypocrisy, the back stabbings - an environment of which he has some insight as a former journalist. It all seems quite convincing. Although recognisable types, the characters feel reasonably real and credible.
Unfortunately, the book is let down by the writing. For the sake of trying to be amusing, Burston has recourse to gross exaggerations in his descriptions and the whole book is suffused with a short of bitter superficiality that makes it less palatable than it could have been. There are also a few terrible sentences, monumental clangers that a good editor should not have let pass, or a good writer put to paper in the first place.
Still it's fluffy and mostly fun (despite a dark undercurrent) and will help while a few mindless hours.
Displaying 1 of 1 review