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Boy Wonder
Told in the form of interviews with those who knew and hated him, this hilarious and irreverent mockumentary recounts the rise and fall of notorious Hollywood producer Shark Trager. As a young man, Shark had dreams of directing artistic movies, but when his film school project is savaged by a snobby French critic, Shark turns instead to producing exploitative trash, the more shocking and outrageous the better. Fueled by a nonstop supply of sex and drugs, Shark’s life and work become increasingly bizarre and erratic. Yet we meet a different side of Shark too, as we learn how he saved a group of Sunday school teachers held hostage by terrorists, prevented a horrific attack on Nancy Reagan by a sex-crazed donkey, and single-handedly took out a squad of dangerous neo-Nazis posing as disabled schoolchildren. It all leads up to a wild and explosive finale when, against all odds, one of Shark’s films finds itself a contender for the Academy Awards—but the ceremony doesn’t go exactly according to plan ...
Riotously funny, wickedly politically incorrect, and completely impossible to put down, James Robert Baker’s satire of the film industry Boy Wonder (1988), long revered as a cult classic, returns to print at last in this new edition, which includes an afterword by his partner, Ron Robertson.
Riotously funny, wickedly politically incorrect, and completely impossible to put down, James Robert Baker’s satire of the film industry Boy Wonder (1988), long revered as a cult classic, returns to print at last in this new edition, which includes an afterword by his partner, Ron Robertson.
468 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
October 28, 2012
Wow, where to start with this one...The back of my paperback copy says it's something of a cross between CITIZEN KANE and BLUE VELVET. I guess that's as good a hook as any, but really it's so much more than that.
Simply put, it's an oral history of Hollywood producer Shark Trager, who produced mega-blockbuster films with titles like SEX KILL a GO-GO, WHITE DESERT, MONDO JET SET, HAIL!, and BLUE LIGHTS to name a few. Each character reveals more about themselves as the bio of Shark progresses through almost 40 years of Pop Culture history according to "Hollywood." Along the way you've got films both real and imagined referred to, actors both real and imagined, directors, producers, studios, and every L.A. cliche you've ever been exposed to. From his birth in 1950 at a drive-in theater showing GUN CRAZY, to his complete flameout in 1988, every facet of Shark's life is exposed by his contemporaries, friends, enemies, lovers and family. I was never bored once in the nearly 600 pages this book runs.
Along the way, Shark's life mirrors THE SEARCHERS, VERTIGO, A TOUCH OF EVIL and CITIZEN KANE through almost psychedelic (and psychotic) reflections. It's over-the-top and tragic, sometimes it's touching and very, very funny. It skewers the whole mirage, while loving it dearly. I can't recommend it enough. It's probably not for everyone. But it's definitely for anyone who appreciates a novel to get lost in. Find it.
Simply put, it's an oral history of Hollywood producer Shark Trager, who produced mega-blockbuster films with titles like SEX KILL a GO-GO, WHITE DESERT, MONDO JET SET, HAIL!, and BLUE LIGHTS to name a few. Each character reveals more about themselves as the bio of Shark progresses through almost 40 years of Pop Culture history according to "Hollywood." Along the way you've got films both real and imagined referred to, actors both real and imagined, directors, producers, studios, and every L.A. cliche you've ever been exposed to. From his birth in 1950 at a drive-in theater showing GUN CRAZY, to his complete flameout in 1988, every facet of Shark's life is exposed by his contemporaries, friends, enemies, lovers and family. I was never bored once in the nearly 600 pages this book runs.
Along the way, Shark's life mirrors THE SEARCHERS, VERTIGO, A TOUCH OF EVIL and CITIZEN KANE through almost psychedelic (and psychotic) reflections. It's over-the-top and tragic, sometimes it's touching and very, very funny. It skewers the whole mirage, while loving it dearly. I can't recommend it enough. It's probably not for everyone. But it's definitely for anyone who appreciates a novel to get lost in. Find it.
November 9, 2025
3.5
Did you ever have the reading experience of absolutely loving what you're reading for the larger chunk of the book's length - only to then witness a seismic shift (like 1/2 or 3/4 of the way through) that embraces an up-the-ante tone of no-return?, one that serves to sabotage the book's overall strength?
That, alas, is 'Boy Wonder'.
When I was at the midway point of this almost-500-pp. novel, what went through my mind were thoughts like 'To say that there's nothing like it is... well, true. It's in the Top 5 of 'Wackiest Books I've Read'. Page by page, it brings on an adrenaline rush that would come with a merry-go-round at top speed. It's as though Patrick Dennis (due to its wit), Joe Orton (the preoccupation with death), Joe Keenan (the understanding of farce) and Jacqueline Susann (for its drug / booze usage, along with its excess of Hollywood hijinks) somehow, inexplicably, had a love child.
As I continued on, however, my thoughts took a sharp turn: '~ and then there's the much more anarchic second half... where influences like Jim Thompson & David Goodis (for the violence of both), John Waters (as OTT meets OTT), Russ Meyer (and all that implies sexually) and Buñuel (and his anti-religion rants) seem to enter in... although the dominant voice is uniquely Baker's.'
I didn't enjoy the second half as much. Much of it is still bizarrely funny but - esp. as the last third arrives - the wit begins to suffer... before it evaporates altogether.
In his depiction of turbulent wunderkind Shark Trager, Baker creates a damaged goods hybrid of vintage studio head Irving Thalberg and cinema reinventor Orson Welles that has the real genius of neither. What Trager does have in his favor is the finger-on-the-pulse ability of inherently knowing what kind of 'acceptable' movie trash the public will eat up with a spoon. He produces a series of truly awful flicks - from romantic 'comedy' to disaster film to family saga - that immediately rise as blockbusters.
With his final production - 'Home to the Heart' - he pulls off a multi-Oscar-nominated product that sets the stage for an Academy Awards ceremony sequence as anarchic as it is vulgar. It's not so much that vulgar is offensive as much as it can simply be unfunny in a clever comic novel. In being draining, its purpose is undone.
Still... if nothing else, Baker (who, at age 50, took his life in 1997, thinking himself a failure as a commercial novelist) knew his cinema history - and how! From film noir to westerns to Sandra Dee and Doris Day, the novel is a cornucopia of references:
It's not surprising that, growing up, Baker was for a time the confused product of a cold Republican household. He would apparently address gay matters more explicitly in other works - but, here, the overriding sensibility (aside from the untethered hetero sex) reads as circumspect: occasionally unrestrained but still in the residual shadow of guilt-tinged liberation:
You might start to think (as you sigh), 'Really? Was total-gonzo upheaval the only option here?'
Valancourt Books - a publishing house I rather admire - salvaged 'Boy Wonder' from obscurity in 2020 with a new edition. Valancourt had served the remarkable Michael McDowell quite well by resurrecting most of his work, including his brilliant 'Blackwater'... so I was hoping for a similar kind of 'rebirth'. That didn't happen. I *might* still recommend 'Boy Wonder' to adventurous readers looking for 'something different' - but there's a large caveat here: Kirkus said it best.
I'll never forget the way he looked at me then. If a dog were to look at you that way you'd know you had no choice but to have it put to sleep.When this James Robert Baker novel was first published in 1988, it was referred to by Kirkus as "[a] 'Heaven's Gate' of a novel: far too much of what might have been a very good thing." That's the most accurate comment I've read about the book.
Did you ever have the reading experience of absolutely loving what you're reading for the larger chunk of the book's length - only to then witness a seismic shift (like 1/2 or 3/4 of the way through) that embraces an up-the-ante tone of no-return?, one that serves to sabotage the book's overall strength?
That, alas, is 'Boy Wonder'.
When I was at the midway point of this almost-500-pp. novel, what went through my mind were thoughts like 'To say that there's nothing like it is... well, true. It's in the Top 5 of 'Wackiest Books I've Read'. Page by page, it brings on an adrenaline rush that would come with a merry-go-round at top speed. It's as though Patrick Dennis (due to its wit), Joe Orton (the preoccupation with death), Joe Keenan (the understanding of farce) and Jacqueline Susann (for its drug / booze usage, along with its excess of Hollywood hijinks) somehow, inexplicably, had a love child.
As I continued on, however, my thoughts took a sharp turn: '~ and then there's the much more anarchic second half... where influences like Jim Thompson & David Goodis (for the violence of both), John Waters (as OTT meets OTT), Russ Meyer (and all that implies sexually) and Buñuel (and his anti-religion rants) seem to enter in... although the dominant voice is uniquely Baker's.'
I didn't enjoy the second half as much. Much of it is still bizarrely funny but - esp. as the last third arrives - the wit begins to suffer... before it evaporates altogether.
In his depiction of turbulent wunderkind Shark Trager, Baker creates a damaged goods hybrid of vintage studio head Irving Thalberg and cinema reinventor Orson Welles that has the real genius of neither. What Trager does have in his favor is the finger-on-the-pulse ability of inherently knowing what kind of 'acceptable' movie trash the public will eat up with a spoon. He produces a series of truly awful flicks - from romantic 'comedy' to disaster film to family saga - that immediately rise as blockbusters.
With his final production - 'Home to the Heart' - he pulls off a multi-Oscar-nominated product that sets the stage for an Academy Awards ceremony sequence as anarchic as it is vulgar. It's not so much that vulgar is offensive as much as it can simply be unfunny in a clever comic novel. In being draining, its purpose is undone.
Still... if nothing else, Baker (who, at age 50, took his life in 1997, thinking himself a failure as a commercial novelist) knew his cinema history - and how! From film noir to westerns to Sandra Dee and Doris Day, the novel is a cornucopia of references:
"You can't quit now," Shark responded in his enormous office on the fourteenth floor of the Mastodon Building. He'd had the space remodeled to resemble Raymond Massey's office in 'The Fountainhead', a severe retro-Expressionist decor he sardonically termed "forties crypto-fascist."You'd have to have seen 'The Fountainhead' to know why that visual is hilarious.
Here was this guy who was supposed to be the ultimate boy wonder bursting with energy and a jillion film ideas, and he said he felt like "the macho equivalent of Anne Bancroft in 'The Pumpkin Eater'" after she'd had a hysterectomy or something. Like completely blank and depressed.Only a film junkie recalling watching the now-somewhat-obscure and divisive Jack Clayton art-house flick would flash on the pungent quality of Bancroft's face.
It's not surprising that, growing up, Baker was for a time the confused product of a cold Republican household. He would apparently address gay matters more explicitly in other works - but, here, the overriding sensibility (aside from the untethered hetero sex) reads as circumspect: occasionally unrestrained but still in the residual shadow of guilt-tinged liberation:
"I mentioned that to Shark," Woody said. "It didn't happen like that at all. He only told it that way 'cause at the time he thought that you were straight. He said what actually came down with Tom and him was very beautiful. It was his only gay experience, and it was like something in a Walt Whitman poem."As a satire of post-studio-run Hollywood, 'Boy Wonder' - until it turns full-tilt-boogie in favor of gross-out - is perhaps unmatched. Told in oral history fashion, with a seemingly unending parade of reminiscences by colorful (often artfully detailed) characters who worked with the titular 'genius', this baggy baggage of a book is so often refreshingly looney that it's a genuine letdown when a decided darkness descends on the proceedings.
You might start to think (as you sigh), 'Really? Was total-gonzo upheaval the only option here?'
Valancourt Books - a publishing house I rather admire - salvaged 'Boy Wonder' from obscurity in 2020 with a new edition. Valancourt had served the remarkable Michael McDowell quite well by resurrecting most of his work, including his brilliant 'Blackwater'... so I was hoping for a similar kind of 'rebirth'. That didn't happen. I *might* still recommend 'Boy Wonder' to adventurous readers looking for 'something different' - but there's a large caveat here: Kirkus said it best.
July 31, 2008
One of the funniest books I have ever read. It's trashy but it will make you laugh. Not for the squeamish or puritanical. If I had $60M (make that $200M), I would make this into a mini-series for HBO. Told in first-person narrative from a variety of Hollywood degenerates, this book will someday get the following it deserves. Unfortunately, JRB is no longer with us, but this book is a cult classic.
March 12, 2021
3'5
Una desmadrada sátira sobre Hollywood y la fauna que lo puebla. El libro satiriza diversas épocas (años 60 y la vanguardia, años 70, años 80) con la vida del productor Shark Trager como hilo conductor. Formalmente, la novela se estructura en testimonios orales, a la manera de un documental, lo que sumado a la demencial sucesión de acontecimientos que saturan la novela, hace difícil en ocasiones seguir la trama. Drogas de todo tipo, muertes espantosas, descontrol, sexo en todas sus variantes imaginables y cine, mucho cine. Los giros absolutamente enloquecidos de la trama logran arrancar más de una carcajada y es divertido ir captando las referencias y homenajes que a lo largo de la historia se hacen a películas, actores y directores. Y no sólo a costa del cine se hace escarnio en el libro sino que, viendo las películas de Shark Trager que triunfan, la misma sociedad norteamericana es también ridiculizada.
El final del libro, la traca final durante la gala de los Oscar, es glorioso.
Una desmadrada sátira sobre Hollywood y la fauna que lo puebla. El libro satiriza diversas épocas (años 60 y la vanguardia, años 70, años 80) con la vida del productor Shark Trager como hilo conductor. Formalmente, la novela se estructura en testimonios orales, a la manera de un documental, lo que sumado a la demencial sucesión de acontecimientos que saturan la novela, hace difícil en ocasiones seguir la trama. Drogas de todo tipo, muertes espantosas, descontrol, sexo en todas sus variantes imaginables y cine, mucho cine. Los giros absolutamente enloquecidos de la trama logran arrancar más de una carcajada y es divertido ir captando las referencias y homenajes que a lo largo de la historia se hacen a películas, actores y directores. Y no sólo a costa del cine se hace escarnio en el libro sino que, viendo las películas de Shark Trager que triunfan, la misma sociedad norteamericana es también ridiculizada.
El final del libro, la traca final durante la gala de los Oscar, es glorioso.
December 29, 2007
I am surprised and confused that this book seems to have disappeared from mass consciousness. It is incredible.
Reasons to love this book:
Like the recent Chuck Palahniuk novel Rant, it is written in an oral tradition with many narrators covering the life of one man from the late fifties to the late eighties. Even though it is not credited by Chuck, I'm pretty sure he must have been directly influenced by it.
It is a hilarious, truthful and searing parody of the Hollywood film industry.
It feels epic without ever feeling heavy.
It never stops moving. Starts at quite a pace and picks up from there. So much happens that you can read it many many many times without it ever becoming boring. It is moving, romantic and very funny.
The only soundbite I can think to give this book is Chuck Palahniuk mixed with Dickens and Peter Biskind.
If you don't like Chuck P (or Dickens for that matter) don't be put off. It's actually nothing like the sum of those parts.
James Robert Baker died a few years ago and seems to have been forgotten. He was mainly known as a 'gay' writer. I had read a great review of Boy Wonder in a movie magazine and went to the bookshop to buy it. Being straight I was slightly unnerved when I was told to go to the gay section. This is not a gay novel at all. I'm sure this has helped to bury this book because the stigma attached to gay fiction is such that straight readers wouldn't go near it. I know I would never have picked it up originally if I was just browsing. Boy Wonder is as much a gay novel as The House of Leaves is a book about architecture.
You can still find this book even though I think it's out of print. I think you can get it for 20p on Amazon. I think it's time that this book is rediscovered as the absolute hidden gem that it is.
Check out the reviews here
Boy Wonder at Amazon
if you don't believe me.
Reasons to love this book:
Like the recent Chuck Palahniuk novel Rant, it is written in an oral tradition with many narrators covering the life of one man from the late fifties to the late eighties. Even though it is not credited by Chuck, I'm pretty sure he must have been directly influenced by it.
It is a hilarious, truthful and searing parody of the Hollywood film industry.
It feels epic without ever feeling heavy.
It never stops moving. Starts at quite a pace and picks up from there. So much happens that you can read it many many many times without it ever becoming boring. It is moving, romantic and very funny.
The only soundbite I can think to give this book is Chuck Palahniuk mixed with Dickens and Peter Biskind.
If you don't like Chuck P (or Dickens for that matter) don't be put off. It's actually nothing like the sum of those parts.
James Robert Baker died a few years ago and seems to have been forgotten. He was mainly known as a 'gay' writer. I had read a great review of Boy Wonder in a movie magazine and went to the bookshop to buy it. Being straight I was slightly unnerved when I was told to go to the gay section. This is not a gay novel at all. I'm sure this has helped to bury this book because the stigma attached to gay fiction is such that straight readers wouldn't go near it. I know I would never have picked it up originally if I was just browsing. Boy Wonder is as much a gay novel as The House of Leaves is a book about architecture.
You can still find this book even though I think it's out of print. I think you can get it for 20p on Amazon. I think it's time that this book is rediscovered as the absolute hidden gem that it is.
Check out the reviews here
Boy Wonder at Amazon
if you don't believe me.
April 25, 2021
I rather enjoyed this biography of the fictional Hollywood producer Shark Trager as told by the various people (family, friends, enemies and lovers) who knew him. It's fabulously over the top with lashings of sex, drugs and violence, almost a homage to the trashy novels of the 1970s as written by authors such as Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins.
February 13, 2020
"And you shine just like a star
When you're giving the best of you
And you cry and you're wondering why
And who will take the rest of you?"
It dont rain in Beverly Hills (Dean & Britta)
No es una sátira de Hollywood y el cine mainstream americano. Bueno, sí. Pero no sólo eso.
Con la excusa de su estructura a lo Please Kill Me mockumentado (esto es, de construcción de un relato a través de los testimonios de quienes conocieron al protagonista, de concatenación de anécdotas tragisórdidas a lo el Hollywood Babilonia de Kenneth Anger) James consigue abarcar casi medio siglo de cultura popular occidental desde su mismo epicentro, desde su punto de origen y expansión mitómana. Y es en ese barrido donde, gracias a unos personajes espectaculares (capaces de cerrar un comentario pocho con una frase final que lo convierte todo en divertido o del revés, de convertir una boutade simpática en una tragedia con un giro de clausura) James toca un sin fin de temas tales como aquello de convertirse la gente en eso de lo que siempre reniega, todo lo asociado al deseo de ver fracasar a quien triunfa o lo ambivalente de las relaciones sentimentales dentro de su correspondiente paradigma temporal, puesto que se abarca desde el ocaso de los 50 al advenimiento de la cultura jipi y todo lo que vendrá después: la amoralidad setentera y el neón narcótico ochentas.
Y además de plegarse sobre sí misma la novela tiene una cosa que mola mucho, y es la sensación de que todos esos kilómetros de farlopa que se meten los involucrados en la historia (así como la influencia de ese abuso extremo en el día a día de sus decisiones morales, económicas, artísticas y sentimentales) con tan sólo cambiar un par de detalles nimios bien podría ser Mejor Productor un borrador donde en lugar de hablar de productores y películas se hablase de empresas Y CEOs o emporios mediáticos y contertulios de El Chiringuito de Jugones. Es el día a día de gente que tiene que asumir decisiones con consecuencias severas sobre muchas otras personas y que, precisamente, la primera decisión que asume es dejar de respirar oxígeno para sustituirlo por farlopa.
PD: quizá el homenaje más claro al cine en sí sea la propia estructura del libro: insiste James Robert Baker mucho en que una película es, antes que nada, labor de edición (en línea con Chris Marker), y no hay labor de edición más semejante a la del cine que esa forma de intercalar personajes contando anécdotas y creando así tramas paralelas y elipsis además de poder resaltar lo que desea cuando quiero hacerlo o generar tensión cuando así lo considera oportuno.
Obra maestra.
When you're giving the best of you
And you cry and you're wondering why
And who will take the rest of you?"
It dont rain in Beverly Hills (Dean & Britta)
No es una sátira de Hollywood y el cine mainstream americano. Bueno, sí. Pero no sólo eso.
Con la excusa de su estructura a lo Please Kill Me mockumentado (esto es, de construcción de un relato a través de los testimonios de quienes conocieron al protagonista, de concatenación de anécdotas tragisórdidas a lo el Hollywood Babilonia de Kenneth Anger) James consigue abarcar casi medio siglo de cultura popular occidental desde su mismo epicentro, desde su punto de origen y expansión mitómana. Y es en ese barrido donde, gracias a unos personajes espectaculares (capaces de cerrar un comentario pocho con una frase final que lo convierte todo en divertido o del revés, de convertir una boutade simpática en una tragedia con un giro de clausura) James toca un sin fin de temas tales como aquello de convertirse la gente en eso de lo que siempre reniega, todo lo asociado al deseo de ver fracasar a quien triunfa o lo ambivalente de las relaciones sentimentales dentro de su correspondiente paradigma temporal, puesto que se abarca desde el ocaso de los 50 al advenimiento de la cultura jipi y todo lo que vendrá después: la amoralidad setentera y el neón narcótico ochentas.
Y además de plegarse sobre sí misma la novela tiene una cosa que mola mucho, y es la sensación de que todos esos kilómetros de farlopa que se meten los involucrados en la historia (así como la influencia de ese abuso extremo en el día a día de sus decisiones morales, económicas, artísticas y sentimentales) con tan sólo cambiar un par de detalles nimios bien podría ser Mejor Productor un borrador donde en lugar de hablar de productores y películas se hablase de empresas Y CEOs o emporios mediáticos y contertulios de El Chiringuito de Jugones. Es el día a día de gente que tiene que asumir decisiones con consecuencias severas sobre muchas otras personas y que, precisamente, la primera decisión que asume es dejar de respirar oxígeno para sustituirlo por farlopa.
PD: quizá el homenaje más claro al cine en sí sea la propia estructura del libro: insiste James Robert Baker mucho en que una película es, antes que nada, labor de edición (en línea con Chris Marker), y no hay labor de edición más semejante a la del cine que esa forma de intercalar personajes contando anécdotas y creando así tramas paralelas y elipsis además de poder resaltar lo que desea cuando quiero hacerlo o generar tensión cuando así lo considera oportuno.
Obra maestra.
July 2, 2019
Brindo por Shark Trager y por haber traído al mundo algunas de mis películas preferidas, desde "Desierto blanco" -ya quisiera Malick haberle llegado a la suela de sus zapatos con su muy meliflua -(Dios, espero que exista esta palabra) "Malas tierras"- o ese "Luz azul" que llegó mucho más lejos de lo que el ingenuo Spielberg pudiera haber llegado nunca, incluso tengo cierta debilidad por "Mondo Jet Set" y espero que Criterion se anime finalmente a editar ese "Director's Cut" de "Ola roja" que -sospecho- la redescubrirá a una generación como la obra maestra olvidada del Nuevo Hollywood. Su vida está llena de claroscuros, sin duda, y "Boy Wonder" ("¿Mejor productor?" ¿Qué clase de broma es esta?) aclara alguno de ellos sin lamer sus botas y mostrando la dimensión absoluta del personaje. Ególatra, mesías del cinematógrafo, Robert Evans en speed al cubo, criminal, punk insolente... GENIO. Con todas sus sombras (¿Te crees acaso mejor que él? ¿ESTÁS FLIPANDO?) repito: yo brindo por Shark. En fin...
"Venga, neeeenaaa, vámonos"
PD: En mis noches más oscuras, siempre me templa el alma recordar que Trager y yo, al menos, teníamos común nuestra canción preferida de Roxy Music (y decir esto, siendo quién eran, es pero que mucho...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azPv1...
"Venga, neeeenaaa, vámonos"
PD: En mis noches más oscuras, siempre me templa el alma recordar que Trager y yo, al menos, teníamos común nuestra canción preferida de Roxy Music (y decir esto, siendo quién eran, es pero que mucho...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azPv1...
March 19, 2016
Una de las sátiras más demoledoras sobre Hollywood, en forma de historia oral en la que se narra la vida, auge, caida, redención y muerte del egomaníaco productor Shark Trager. Baker es uno de esos autores que consiguen aunar lo trash con la calidad literaria y es una lástima que su temprana muerte nos privara de más historias como ésta. Desde ahora es una de mis novelas favoritas.
September 26, 2024
QUÉ BARBARIDAD De libro!!!
Me ha parecido un genio James Robert Baker. Sería más que un placer leer más libros de él, el tío que tú fuistes
Me ha parecido un genio James Robert Baker. Sería más que un placer leer más libros de él, el tío que tú fuistes
June 23, 2019
Una sàtira salvatge i ferotge de la indústria de Hollywood, plena de personatges impossibles d'oblidar. Sexe, drogues i Rock and roll, però sobretot cinema, desmesura i mala llet. Tan divertida i xocant que es llegeix en quatre tardes malgrat les seves més de 500 pàgines. Si existís una convenció de fans d'aquesta novel·la, hi aniria cada any. Però millor llegiu el que en diu el Sr. VCR (que és qui me la va recomanar), en aquesta ressenya que subscric al 100% http://elpajaroburlon.com/novela-sati...
May 11, 2022
Fer versemblant el disbarat, per mi això és un dels motius de la literatura i del cine. M'he divertit moltíssim llegint aquest fals documental i veient com es pot anar cargolant la trama fins a límits insospitats però sempre amb tot el control com una bona pel·licula. No tenia ni idea de qui era James Robert Baker i el grandíssim Roger Peláez me'l va fer descobrir, dos grans profetes de la nostra era quasi buida de tot i pleníssima de tot allò altre.
December 6, 2008
So much goes on in this book that I will not even attempt to summarize. At it's essence the book is the great American novel that all authors (American ones at least) want to write. It is dark. Very dark. Rich and flawless on all levels.
A boyfriend lent it to me when it first came out and then took it back when I had finished reading it to pass on to someone else. A couple years later I wanted to reread it. Fat chance. I could barely remember the title and only remembered that the author had a three names traditional name. It took me about 18 months to figure it out (obviously not hunting night and day). I ordered it on Amazon and saw that the author or his boyfriend (I can't remember anymore) had responded to a review so I emailed him (through the boyfriend I think) an effusive fan letter (I had never, ever done such a thing before). I heard nothing back, I felt bad as if I had crossed some line, but found out a few weeks after that James Robert Baker had died a couple of years before, and that he actually lived in my part of L.A.
If you love books read this now.
R.I.P James Robert Baker
A boyfriend lent it to me when it first came out and then took it back when I had finished reading it to pass on to someone else. A couple years later I wanted to reread it. Fat chance. I could barely remember the title and only remembered that the author had a three names traditional name. It took me about 18 months to figure it out (obviously not hunting night and day). I ordered it on Amazon and saw that the author or his boyfriend (I can't remember anymore) had responded to a review so I emailed him (through the boyfriend I think) an effusive fan letter (I had never, ever done such a thing before). I heard nothing back, I felt bad as if I had crossed some line, but found out a few weeks after that James Robert Baker had died a couple of years before, and that he actually lived in my part of L.A.
If you love books read this now.
R.I.P James Robert Baker
September 14, 2007
This is my favorite book.
July 28, 2024
Very trashy, very gratuitous. Makes you think. Loved it!
January 7, 2025
No hay historia oral (aunque sea ficción) que no sea un placer leer.
January 27, 2016
Absolutely off-the-wall, shocking, politically incorrect, lewd, inappropriate, gory, disgusting...and fantastic. You will wonder why in he world you are reading it--and why everyone doesn't read it. It defies coherent description. Read the first chapter...and you'll either toss it in disgust or devour it.
July 12, 2025
An exhilarating roller coaster ride through the follies of Hollywood, with all of the drugs and sex one would reasonably expect. Shark, our protagonist, begins as brilliant amateur-then-student director, hitting his stride with artsy-fartsy that unsettlingly anticipates the work of such auteurs as Tommy Wiseau. Of course, by then Shark has found that his true calling is as producer, masterminding behind the scenes in 1930s fashion, but what the heck. The novel sags somewhat when Shark is cast down, resurrecting himself by means of a Rambo-like play in Beirut -- but I suppose one could say that at this point Shark is no longer making movies, but becoming a movie character himself. His subsequent resurrection as a purveyor of Hallmark-style schlock, however, makes perfect sense, although here too I think Baker is less than entirely in control of his material. Certainly having his characters justify the deaths of a bunch of kids on the basis that they would've grown up to be Nazis anyway doesn't even begin to scrape, morally speaking, the superficial. Those objections aside, however, this is a piece of brilliant writing, with a good ear for voices and a narrative that is cunningly imaginative and paced. The "Red Tide" chapter alone had me laughing to the point of tears.
As I'm sure most readers of a book like this would know, James Robert Baker's career -- and life -- reached its apex and ruin with the novel *Tim and Pete*, in which the title characters, marked for death by AIDS, decide to commit an act of terrorism against a convention of homophobic Republican bigots (please forgive the multiple redundancy). Bruce Bawer- and Andrew Sullivan-style nellies saw to it that Baker's reputation was ruined *within the gay community*, leading to Baker's demise and depriving the world of one of gay fiction's most promising voices. On that basis alone I'd want to give *Boy Wonder* five stars, but it's not quite perfect -- so, with regret, only four.
As I'm sure most readers of a book like this would know, James Robert Baker's career -- and life -- reached its apex and ruin with the novel *Tim and Pete*, in which the title characters, marked for death by AIDS, decide to commit an act of terrorism against a convention of homophobic Republican bigots (please forgive the multiple redundancy). Bruce Bawer- and Andrew Sullivan-style nellies saw to it that Baker's reputation was ruined *within the gay community*, leading to Baker's demise and depriving the world of one of gay fiction's most promising voices. On that basis alone I'd want to give *Boy Wonder* five stars, but it's not quite perfect -- so, with regret, only four.
September 16, 2020
James Robert Baker on fire with this second-person novel about a Hollywood prodigy whose life and brain are totally fucked by the world around him. Shark Trager, our anti-hero, makes monumental art and monumental trash while destroying the lives of everyone around him. I read once that the relationship between Shark and his father is the most autobiographical thing that Baker ever wrote. Based on that, I expected Shark's character to be gay, but he is not. Instead, Shark is one of the hyper-straight characters that Baker tends to write. Maybe that's not accurate. The character is just hypersexual, which is something that many of Baker's characters are, regardless of their sexual orientation.
The book is a sprawling story, from birth to death. I read the original Futura trade paperback, which is 470 pages. It felt very long, but not in a bad way. What I don't understand is how the pocket-size paperbook contains all of this text. Were subsequent editions abridged? I hope not. But the font is pretty small even in this edition, so I have to imagine other editions were slimmed down.
I only have a couple other James Robert Baker novels left to read. I try to space them out. He's a treat to read, capturing the spirit of Henry Miller's most enthusiastic stream of consciousness transcriptions, but mixing in a wonderful array of pop culture references. Like most of his other books, this one features many references to Roxy Music. While reading the book I had to listen to a bunch of Roxy Music to satisfy the seed that the text planted in my brain. "The Thrill of it All," indeed.
The book is a sprawling story, from birth to death. I read the original Futura trade paperback, which is 470 pages. It felt very long, but not in a bad way. What I don't understand is how the pocket-size paperbook contains all of this text. Were subsequent editions abridged? I hope not. But the font is pretty small even in this edition, so I have to imagine other editions were slimmed down.
I only have a couple other James Robert Baker novels left to read. I try to space them out. He's a treat to read, capturing the spirit of Henry Miller's most enthusiastic stream of consciousness transcriptions, but mixing in a wonderful array of pop culture references. Like most of his other books, this one features many references to Roxy Music. While reading the book I had to listen to a bunch of Roxy Music to satisfy the seed that the text planted in my brain. "The Thrill of it All," indeed.
March 25, 2020
Boy Wonder is offensive, hilarious, and deranged. I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who likes the oral history format and who has a passing knowledge of Classic Hollywood (lots of movie references). I could not put this down when I started reading it.
This book was filled front to back with non-stop insanity. And I loved every second of it! This is a fictional oral history of the rise and fall of producer Shark Trager. Shark is a brilliant movie mogul, but an absolutely self destructive megalomaniac drug fiend, and I loved every second spent talking about him
This book charts him from his birth in a drive in movie theater to his isolated childhood to his studio films, and finally his flameout. Along the way he keeps running into his childhood, obsesssive to the point of demented, crush Kathy-dropping into her life to make it a living hell. As Shark's fame rises, he gets embroiled in all sorts of insane adventures. He gets stabbed on a movie set, brawls with directors every few pages, and even murders a horny donkey to save the first lady. His friends and family get in on the action too! There are so many murders in a fits of rage and bizarre accidents that it gets increasingly absurd and hilarious each time it happens.
Seriously...read this book. You may not like it as much as I do, but there's not another one like it out there
This book was filled front to back with non-stop insanity. And I loved every second of it! This is a fictional oral history of the rise and fall of producer Shark Trager. Shark is a brilliant movie mogul, but an absolutely self destructive megalomaniac drug fiend, and I loved every second spent talking about him
This book charts him from his birth in a drive in movie theater to his isolated childhood to his studio films, and finally his flameout. Along the way he keeps running into his childhood, obsesssive to the point of demented, crush Kathy-dropping into her life to make it a living hell. As Shark's fame rises, he gets embroiled in all sorts of insane adventures. He gets stabbed on a movie set, brawls with directors every few pages, and even murders a horny donkey to save the first lady. His friends and family get in on the action too! There are so many murders in a fits of rage and bizarre accidents that it gets increasingly absurd and hilarious each time it happens.
Seriously...read this book. You may not like it as much as I do, but there's not another one like it out there
July 18, 2018
James Robert Baker's "Boy Wonder" has been on my 'to-read' list for years because it's kind of hard to get and expensive in the U.S., as a handful of truly buzzworthy OOP cult novels tend to be. The author throws out a razor-sharp, gonzo satire of the movie business as seen through fictional producer "Shark" Trager who careens through the movie business of the 1970s and 80s. It's funny, it's bold, it's offensive and it jams thumbs into the eyes of Hollywood. It's punk! Film fans will get a kick out of the piles of references and allusions to real movies. It may be the finest biz satire ever written, though I haven't read enough other ones to really qualify that statement. JRB is often referred to as a 'queer author' due to his radical activism and controversial novel "Tim and Pete," featuring fugitive lovers who plan to assassinate Reagan. The local bookstore had an overpriced used copy of this shelved in the LGBTQ section, but it really isn't a gay novel. While there are gay characters, the main character is offensively straight. It's a shame that the author took his own life in the '90s. I would have loved to see what he would still be coming up with.
June 12, 2022
A speed read. Each of the interviews leads you to the next piece of the story. It’s not quite a roller coaster because it never dips. It’s a satire that has everything - sex, murder, suicide, drugs, religion, racism, nepotism, eroticism. And perhaps these go hand-in-hand, but it In all seriousness, every adjective can be used to describe this book. I only wonder if some parts were not dramatized stories if real shit happening in Hollywood. Regardless, very very entertaining. Buckle in, it’s a wild ride.
October 17, 2024
Read back in the 1990’s : I texted this to a friend tonight: One of my favorite books was this bizarro novel called Boy Wonder by James Robert Baker, it starts out feeling amateurish and then it develops into the most fascinating tale. Me and a handful of my Disney friends were over the moon for it and it had a cult following of it in our little group. We were too shy to send fan mail then we learned he committed suicide in palisades. 💔
Dear James, Dear James family and friends. James novel made quite an impression on us. Sorry for your loss and may his memory be a blessing
Dear James, Dear James family and friends. James novel made quite an impression on us. Sorry for your loss and may his memory be a blessing
October 27, 2025
I don't quite know where to begin but I will venture to guess that this tongue in cheek biography of a Hollywood producer is a full social satire on Hollywood as well as Southern California. It is hilarious from start to finish with lots of sex, exploits and crazy people and situations. This late author had quite a demented mind and I look forward to reading more of his books. Thank goodness, this book is back in print.
December 5, 2025
I just can’t. I’m very interested, I wanna really enjoy this, but the constantly shifting point of view, in which there is a new narrator every couple of paragraphs, it’s just doing my head in. It’s an interesting concept and I’m sure a lot of people love it but maybe I just read too quickly? All the start-stop. It’s like banging my head against the wall. I can’t fathom dealing with it for 500 pages.
January 21, 2020
Boy Wonder is a bawdy naughty wild ride. Not for the easily offended, but any means, but a must read for anyone who romanticizes Hollywood and misses a time when movies were just starting to get awful. I thoroughly enjoyed every berserk page.
September 12, 2025
Si ciudadano Kane i Buckaroo Banzai tinguessin un fill seria aquest llibre. Entretingut, amb moments hilarants, tot i que excessiu i de vegades repetitiu. En resum, seria una pel·lícula pròpia del seu protagonista.
February 5, 2017
I read this a long time ago, but remember it making me laugh. A lot. So it gets four stars for that, and being a memorable read.
April 6, 2021
Like watching a Troma film. Trashy and fully entertaining.
September 13, 2022
Wild and absolutely epic tale of Hollywood, always displaying a fierce love for the movies. Total hidden gem.
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