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Hero
No one understand the sex, the gloss and the glitter of the movie world as Leslie Deane. Alive with a raw honesty erotic power, his sensational bestseller takes filmland's fantasy world by storm. HERO Hendricks takes things as they come - work, women, even fame. Everything he does makes him known - everything he is supposed to have done makes him notorious…
390 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
December 22, 2019
Quite an interesting look at the European film industry c. 1980 ... very pulpy, and tickling around the edges of soft-core, which was doubtlessly a major selling point forty years ago, when this kind of stuff was just about as naughty as you could get without getting yourself shelved with the X-rated stuff! (In fact, the one real downside to the novel is that the sex gets outlandishly unbelievable toward the end, when Deane is searching desperately for something new, and gets just plain weird at times!)
I read this for the first time when it came out -- still have the 1980 Arrow paperback, the one with the really good cover, not the "meh" jacket you see here. The truth is, LOL, it was the cover that sold the book to be, all those years ago! Imagine my surprise to discover that it's an interesting look at the Euro film industry, and various elements of European society, from Italy to Spain.
Deane actually writes quite well, though she didn't go on to a long career ... in fact, I suspect "Leslie Deane" might be a pen name for a writer who'd worked extensively in some other field and didn't want his/her other name (real or pen) associated with racy pulp fiction! If Hero had a best seller, with a movie adaptation, we might have seen a lot more "Leslie Dean" books. That the pen name was retired in, I think, two titles hints that it didn't. You win some, you lose some.
The plot? Gorgeous young guy gets dragged in front of the cameras because he's like a cross between Brad Pitt and Henry Cavill (!), and he'll bonk just about anything, so long as it's breathing. He falls in with good sorts, bad sorts, all sorts ... meets a lovely Italian actress he actually cares for ... stuff goes right, stuff goes wrong, then very, very wrong ... gosh, will it all turn out right in the end???
Worth a look, if you can find a copy and have an interest in the film industry back around the time when Mel Gibson was very young and boyish. Ooooh, that sounds like so long ago! Definitely for adults only; the reading age group known at the moment as New Adult would probably get the most out of this ... wouldn't recommend it for younger teens, since there's such a lot of drugs, booze, smoking, swearing, violence, the works, as well as the sex. Hey, it's pulp -- read and enjoy it for what it is.
I read this for the first time when it came out -- still have the 1980 Arrow paperback, the one with the really good cover, not the "meh" jacket you see here. The truth is, LOL, it was the cover that sold the book to be, all those years ago! Imagine my surprise to discover that it's an interesting look at the Euro film industry, and various elements of European society, from Italy to Spain.
Deane actually writes quite well, though she didn't go on to a long career ... in fact, I suspect "Leslie Deane" might be a pen name for a writer who'd worked extensively in some other field and didn't want his/her other name (real or pen) associated with racy pulp fiction! If Hero had a best seller, with a movie adaptation, we might have seen a lot more "Leslie Dean" books. That the pen name was retired in, I think, two titles hints that it didn't. You win some, you lose some.
The plot? Gorgeous young guy gets dragged in front of the cameras because he's like a cross between Brad Pitt and Henry Cavill (!), and he'll bonk just about anything, so long as it's breathing. He falls in with good sorts, bad sorts, all sorts ... meets a lovely Italian actress he actually cares for ... stuff goes right, stuff goes wrong, then very, very wrong ... gosh, will it all turn out right in the end???
Worth a look, if you can find a copy and have an interest in the film industry back around the time when Mel Gibson was very young and boyish. Ooooh, that sounds like so long ago! Definitely for adults only; the reading age group known at the moment as New Adult would probably get the most out of this ... wouldn't recommend it for younger teens, since there's such a lot of drugs, booze, smoking, swearing, violence, the works, as well as the sex. Hey, it's pulp -- read and enjoy it for what it is.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review