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Tim Riley, in association with goodreads reviews, presents:



A novelization of the Ninth film of Quentin Tarantino

In the 350th review by Tim Riley:


(The publisher is also to be commended for that cover, and the fact that the initial release is a massmarket paperback, keeping with the film novelizations from the era... it even includes advertisements for other books published around the time)

Before we discuss the book, let's discuss the film for a moment (and if you do not like digressions about film, let's cut to the chase and say right now that you're not going to like this book). Tarantino is, in my not-so-humble opinion, one of the most consistent directors. I love his films for the most part and honestly, "Once Upon a Time In Hollywood" despite being one of his lesser loved films, is actually one of my favorites from the director. I like that it's a less action oriented story and more of a personal drama. In many ways it is his most experimental because it is a character piece from a plot stand point, but overall it's more about a time and place than it even is about the plot� it actually has the most potential of all of his movies into making it as a novel (except Jackie Brown� because, well, it was one).

Well, we all knew Tarantino could write screenplays, but could he pull off a novel? Answer: just about. This book is very much what could have happened if you combined Elmore Leonard with Michael Crichton. It has Leonard's characterization and dialogue and Crichton's love of digressions and facts mixed in with his fiction (though instead of science, it's film history). Now this leads to the fact that in many ways, this book is a jumbled mess. To be fair, the film was as well to a certain extent. It was an extremely polished film, but frustrating with flashbacks inside flashbacks and various other tricks like that. Here we'll be in the middle of a scene and Tarantino will then lovingly give you a five page history lesson on Akira Kurosawa or the importance of I Am Curious (Yellow) in terms of cinema history.

If you did not like the cutaways in the film, you're really not going to have a good time. He has a tendency to jump to the past or even the future for part of a scene and then come back to the present. Some could even argue that he has a tendency of spoiling his own story for you if you haven't seen the film. You'll get a scene with characters in the future recounting something that is in the movie (but interestingly not in the book) and it makes for a very strange experience. Personally I'm not as averse to spoilers as some people, but I can clearly see where these aspects would frustrate people

His career as a screenwriter is also clear in how he writes. Everything is happening in the present tense as in a screenplay. While I've seen authors use this before, here it feels less stylistic and more relying on simply another style of writing.

Yep. Overall it feels like a weird and unpolished novel.

�

It's also a lot of fun.

This is not going to be a book for everyone, but despite its flaws, Tarantino has crafted an interesting debut novel. While I mentioned earlier that he relies on screenwriting style, this is not just a copy of the screenplay. This is a VERY different book from the movie with several new scenes and several scenes that were in the film and not in the book (view spoiler)[perhaps most shockingly, a different ending. (hide spoiler)] The book feels more grounded in reality and also feels like a more personal story. The plot aspect really is about Rick and how he's coming to terms with his career and where it needs to head if he's continuing. It's in every scene with him, sometimes blatantly, but often quite subtlety. It's a personal journey, and while at times the book feels "plotless" it creates a wonderful character study as well as capturing a time and place.

Yes, Tarantino goes off on film digressions that stop the "action" of the story� every single one of them is important. He's setting the time and place. He's showing you how Hollywood worked at the time. He's showing where it tried to evolve and where it was stuck until something pushed it forward. Each of these is a factor that explain in a way why Rick makes the decisions he does. Hollywood was undergoing big changes at the time. In the sixties it was caught in a war between old Hollywood and modern Hollywood. Should it keep westerns the family friendly clean affair of the John Wayne films of the past or go with the gritty R rated style the Italians were making? Should it reject the counterculture youth in favor of presenting the "family values" of the 50s, or should it show that families weren't always the perfect places and sometimes split up (as perfectly portrayed in how Charles Manson recruited members to his "family). There's a lot of moving parts, some of which feel pointless from a "let's get to from point A to point B" narrative� all of it though feels like capturing a moment in time.

Look, this is either going to be a book you dig despite of (or because of) Tarantino's quirks or absolutely hate. I was completely all in. I loved the old Hollywood feel. I delighted in the fact that the book feels more like a Hollywood history lesson at times more than an actual novel� though Tarantino is clearly having a blast mixing in blatantly false information with his facts as some of them involve how real people went on to make films with his fictional ones (including how one of them would later make a film with Quentin Tarantino). I had fun seeing aspects of our characters we didn't get in the film (Cliff has a top five Akira Kurosawa film list and that brought a smile to my face). This is a novel that, just like the movie, if really about a love of film and cinema. If you're not here for that, skip it. I won't blame anyone for not liking it, I'll admit now my score is probably generous, but that's because it hit on subjects that I too love. It was written with me as a target audience member� not everyone will be. A solid 4/5 stars and a big hope that Tarantino decides to write another novel.

In honor of Cliff's list, here's my own off-topic movie tangent with my personal top 5 Kurosawa film list:

1. Seven Samurai
2. Rashomon
3. Yojimbo
4. Throne of Blood
5. High and Low