Hollywood
Good Fit
- Readers who enjoy Bukowski's blunt, unadorned, direct prose style
- Anyone who wants to see the film industry's underbelly with cynicism rather than glamour
- Readers who find parody of recognizable real figures (under changed names) engaging
- Anyone who can read dark humor, alcohol, and failure themes without flinching
Not a Fit
- Readers who want Hollywood portrayed in a romanticized, inspirational way
- Anyone bothered by crude language or explicit depictions of drinking/sex
- Readers seeking a classic, linear plot — the book is largely an episodic chain of encounters
The book opens with Chinaski's meeting with young director Jon Pinchot (a fictionalized version of the real Barbet Schroeder) — Pinchot presses him for the long-overdue screenplay, and the two visit a circle of friends in Marina del Rey.
At this gathering, Chinaski meets a string of eccentric figures: a roulette-obsessed French actor named François Racine, and a manic German director named Wenner Zergog (an obvious caricature of Werner Herzog) — all presented with their own inflated egos and worldviews, none of them idealized by Bukowski.
Pinchot informs Chinaski that acclaimed producer Harold Fezant is interested in the screenplay — but Chinaski himself hasn't written a single line yet, setting up the book's central tension: a writer who doesn't want to write, versus an industry that demands he does.
At a film screening, Chinaski watches a movie about a dictator named "Lido Mamin" ruling a small, brutal country — an open jab at the industry's tendency to aestheticize violence without limit.
The novel then shifts to a subplot of Chinaski and Sara house-hunting — real-estate agents looking down on them, followed by a run-in at a rough biker bar where Chinaski is recognized and nearly swarmed by his own fans.
This chain of episodes demonstrates Bukowski's core method: viewing the grand, 'artistic' facade of the Hollywood world through the lens of his own everyday, crude, alcohol-soaked reality, rendering it both ridiculous and oddly poignant at once.
- Short, blunt sentences and heavy dialogue — Bukowski's signature poetic 'dirty realism'
- Real Hollywood figures (Schroeder, Herzog, Rourke, Dunaway) become recognizable satire targets under altered names
- First-person narration in Chinaski's bittersweet, self-mocking voice
- Episodic structure — each chapter is a separate encounter or party, rather than traditional cause-and-effect plotting
An earlier Chinaski novel, focused on his working life before fame
A similarly drunk, cynical portrait of urban life, in a different industry setting
Short answer: the script becomes a film, but the road there is marked by money trouble, the production company constantly cutting the budget, and a shoot that is halted once. The film is finished, wins nothing at Cannes and plays in a few cinemas, while Chinaski goes back to the racetrack and finally decides to write a novel about it all, to be called «Hollywood».
The script is sent to producers, agents and actors; some find it interesting but say such a subject will be hard to sell to an audience. Then Mack Austin likes the script; he and Jon both want Tom Pell for the lead, and Tom is willing to work for a dollar, but he insists on Austin as director. Jon is on bad terms with Austin and refuses; at a meeting at Chinaski's house the argument runs for hours and no agreement is reached. A few days later Jon reports that Jack Bledsoe has read the script and wants the lead; Francine Bowers also agrees to a reduced fee.
The film is to be made by «Firepower Production» (Harry Fridman and Nate Fishman); Fridman sees no need to read the script. A «play or pay» clause goes into Jack's contract. Then Fridman and Fishman want to push out Jon's producing partners, Tim Raddi and Lance Edwards; by Jon's account the company's shares have fallen from 40 dollars to 4, the budget is cut again and again, and the shoot is squeezed from 34 days to 32. At the meeting in Fridman's office he shouts, calls the two producers «bloodsuckers» and offers them 15 thousand dollars between them.
One morning Jon phones to say the shoot has been stopped: the «Firepower» building is empty, some of the staff have gone two weeks without pay, and Jon says «this is the end». Unexpectedly the shoot resumes: according to Jon, the company has sold its hotels in Europe and its film library and taken a loan from an Italian corporation. The 32-day shoot is completed. During editing Fridman and Fishman phone from London shouting «stop the editing!» and want cheap, rights-free music; Jon blends the good music with the soundtrack so that nothing can be cut out later. The film wins no prize at the Cannes festival.
The premiere takes place at a cinema in a shopping mall: Chinaski and Sara sit in the front row by the wall, see long bodies and enormous heads on the screen, and can't follow the dialogue. At the party afterwards Jack Bledsoe turns up and says «I don't drink». The film plays in 3–4 cinemas: «The New York Times» praises it, the reviewer at «The New Yorker» dislikes it, Rik Talbot puts it among the year's ten best, and on TV Wexler and Selby tear into it. At the end Chinaski and Sara watch the audience come out of an evening showing in San Pedro; at home, when Sara asks «what will you do now?», Chinaski says «I'll write a novel about writing the script and making the film», and he'll call it «Hollywood».
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