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The Users
Elena, a Hollywood hostess and social climber, loves gossip and has a husband with writer's block. Her life really takes a downturn when an early stag film in which she starred is acquired by a Mafia figure.
- GenresFiction
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 17, 2019
I saw the mini-series based on this book years ago. I enjoyed the mini-series, it was actually entertaining and had the beautiful Jaclyn Smith to look at.
I am not sure how I didn't know but I didn't learn until about 5 years ago that it was based on a book. So I sought the book out and finally purchased it recently.
It was a fairly quick read -- sometimes enjoyable and sometimes not -- but I quickly learned that the mini-series I saw had very little in common with the book except for a few names and the locations. This is one time I can say they didn't get much right even the beautiful Jaclyn Smith was miscast.
As a book, The Users, almost works when it sticks to the basic characters of the novel, and when the protagonist Elena interacts with them. It gets bogged down when the author starts throwing in all the Hollywood names she wants to take digs at or expose some secret she knows about them from her journalism career where she deemed herself the new Hedda Hopper. It really bogs down when she throws in some of these celebrities as brief characters only using their first names which happen to the first names of characters in her novel.
And the gratuitous sex scenes at times even bog the story down because some of them were just as if they were thrown in to make the book trashier. A few of them between central characters actually let you know something about the characters but others just had no real reason to be in the book and served no purpose.
Overall I enjoyed The Users. Would I want to read it again? Probably not.
I am not sure how I didn't know but I didn't learn until about 5 years ago that it was based on a book. So I sought the book out and finally purchased it recently.
It was a fairly quick read -- sometimes enjoyable and sometimes not -- but I quickly learned that the mini-series I saw had very little in common with the book except for a few names and the locations. This is one time I can say they didn't get much right even the beautiful Jaclyn Smith was miscast.
As a book, The Users, almost works when it sticks to the basic characters of the novel, and when the protagonist Elena interacts with them. It gets bogged down when the author starts throwing in all the Hollywood names she wants to take digs at or expose some secret she knows about them from her journalism career where she deemed herself the new Hedda Hopper. It really bogs down when she throws in some of these celebrities as brief characters only using their first names which happen to the first names of characters in her novel.
And the gratuitous sex scenes at times even bog the story down because some of them were just as if they were thrown in to make the book trashier. A few of them between central characters actually let you know something about the characters but others just had no real reason to be in the book and served no purpose.
Overall I enjoyed The Users. Would I want to read it again? Probably not.
April 4, 2019
This potboiler was really the very first "Trashy" Hollywood Book. Joyce Haber, the Los Angeles Times columnist who replaced Hedda Hopper, knows her stuff. It is an unintentional rip-roaring comedy with racy dialogue and spot-on introspection of the shallow and vapid Hollywood culture. The thin "plot" of Elena Brent maneuvering her plan to make her husband relevant again is the EXACT same plot that Jackie Collins stole when she wrote "Hollywood Lives" not even bothering to change the name (Elaine) I wonder how no one called her out on that?
November 25, 2016
Hollywood the mid 70's. Haber follows the fortunes of Elena whose husband's film career is flagging, using others and being used herself as she strives to keep their position in the Hollywood hierarchy.
Quite a witty read. Less glamourous and a bit more serious, than say, Jackie Collins, Haber focuses more on the journey from being 'nothing' to being 'somebody' and makes you see why these people are so desperate to stay on top. There is a slide into pathos with the introduction of a fatal eating disorder. These people are out for themselves and it jars a little when they start to care. This also includes some gratuitous sex scenes. I only mention these because they seem to be added on as an afterthought and don't really seem to fit into the story. It's as if the publishers read the finished manuscript and decided there wasn't enough sex in it.
Quite a witty read. Less glamourous and a bit more serious, than say, Jackie Collins, Haber focuses more on the journey from being 'nothing' to being 'somebody' and makes you see why these people are so desperate to stay on top. There is a slide into pathos with the introduction of a fatal eating disorder. These people are out for themselves and it jars a little when they start to care. This also includes some gratuitous sex scenes. I only mention these because they seem to be added on as an afterthought and don't really seem to fit into the story. It's as if the publishers read the finished manuscript and decided there wasn't enough sex in it.
April 18, 2013
Hollywood was never so dirty. This is one dirrrty book.
March 8, 2018
Novel about Hollywood 1976. 431 pages of tiny print. Dense with detail.
July 11, 2020
Read in 1977. Hollywood's users and takers.
January 9, 2010
trash, filth, sorry I read it - kept thinking there might be something salvageable. Wrong!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews