SLIDE (THE) AREA;

by Gavin Lambert

The land along Pacific palisades in Hollywood is apt to slip away without warning, hence the road-side signs - Slide Area. Seven interrelated stories, this volume tells the tale of lost souls marooned on a glittering wasteland.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Gavin Lambert was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood. His writing was mainly fiction and nonfiction about the film industry.

Reviews

[Jon Zelazny · Rating 4 out of 5]

British cineaste-turned-screenwriter Lambert had a soft spot for the weirdos and losers he discovered in the nooks and crannies of La La Land, but did he really interact with them as he portrays himself doing in these stories? If so, he comes off a bit like some benign vampire, or The Watcher from Marvel Comics: this hovering, utterly non-revealing short-term presence in various lives come sadly undone.

As a former director's assistant and script doctor, I particularly related to his centerpiece tale, a thinly-veiled account of director Nicholas Ray's tussles with the mercurial Joan Crawford. In this telling, they're making a burlesque biopic, not JOHNNY GUITAR, but the depiction of psychological game-playing inherent to The Business is spot-on, and hasn't changed in seventy years.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friends, backlot Romans, and expatriate countrymen, I come not to bury Gavin Lambert but praise him. This brilliant author, recently passed on, might very well be one of the most overlooked authors of all time. The Slide Area is a genius collection of short works that deftly recreate every eccentric note and nuance which gave LA its nutty reputation, well earned mostly in the Fifties and Sixties.

The key players in this collection are exiles of one sort or another and are all madder than a hatter. The majority of the action takes place either in the burned out beaches of Santa Monica or the equally scorched backlots of Hollywood. But how about those stories? There's:

1. Nukuhiva - a smug, upper crust British school chum, the envy of everyone in England, ending up as a hustler and beach bum in Venice.
2. End of the Line - Kind of like Grey Gardens, a nutty, exiled Countess cared for by her two shut-in spinster daughters. Scores extra points for mentioning the Hungarian Revolution, the time and place of my birthday.
3. Dreaming Emma - the small-town girl who come to Hollywood with no talent and a fistful of attitude.
4. The Closed Set - a thinly veiled satire on Joan Crawford, a ballsy move by Lambert considering Crawford was alive at the time of publication, probably filming Johnny Guitar or something.
5. Sometimes I'm Blue - A dark portrait of an irresponsible, drunken, spoiled and damaged son of a movie producer.

Although many of the characters sound like cliches Lambert divests them with multiple dimensions and gives them a depth they don't really deserve. The only quibble I have is that the cover should have been some wack Pop Art Piece like a Rosenquist or a Ruscha, which would have flattered the prose inside. A night cityscape doesn't really do much to sell the book, but nevertheless, this is hands down one of the best works about Hollywood ever written. I give The Slide Area a thousand stars.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of interlocking stories on the general subject of Hollywood in the 1950s. There is a representative sampling of characters who are producers, directors, actors, hangers-on, wannabes, and sons of influential Hollywood types. I am surprised that this book is not better known. Unlike many books about Tinseltown, author Gavin Lambert is something of an insider, famous for writing the story the film Inside Daisy Clover is based on.

I highly recommend The Slide Area as it not only gives an interesting picture of Hollywood, but also of Southern California as a whole.

[George Sutton · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. not as good as the goodbye ppl

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vignettes about the beach people on the fringe of Hollywood in Santa Monica (MY HOMETOWN!). The slide area refers to the Pacific Palisades, the cliffs that rain down on the Pacific Coast Highway from time to time. The author is from England and moved to Southern California in 1957, the year I was born. It was fascinating reading a book about my hometown written when I was 2 years old. The author also wrote the screen play for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Inside Daisy Clover.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lambert is famous for his books on Hollywood and his work in the movie business, but he's also a great fiction writer. Those intertwined short stories create a dark, fascinating, unusual portrait of Los Angeles, which is also one its most accurate and most deeply felt. A gem, which deserves to be more well-known.

[Andrei Alupului · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as The Goodbye People, perhaps because in some ways this is that book still in development, but really I could read this guy go on about alienation in Southern California for like 10 more books.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Returning to Los Angeles for the first time since moving away, I wanted to read something quintessentially LA. The Slide Area fit the bill perfectly. A riveting slice of LA as it was in the '50s, it still resonates. Vivid characters, clean strong writing style. A terrific read.

[Rob Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic. Melancholy, funny, wistful, biting, dream-like. And I love the overlapping structure. You could trace a path from this book to "Less Than Zero." The only reason I didn't give it a full five stars is because it's too short. It leaves you wanting more.