Iconic Novels About the World of Cinema
We live in a time where books are almost immediately brought to screen, where there is less attention given to novels than to new films or series. The vast majority of people consume entertainment via screen, rather than the written word. But the interaction between these two formats is fascinating - the way a tale transforms for different mediums, as well as the process of bringing it to life could form entire essays or book lists of their own.
But one space we’ve found particularly resonant is the stories behind the screen - the ones that explore the lives of screenwriters or directors or actors, the stories of Hollywood and the worlds around it, the lives behind cinema. This list delves into some of our favourites from this universe, that we believe deserve your attention as much as any adaptation or new show.
Alberto Moravia - Contempt (1954)
Moravia is regarded as one of Italy’s greatest twentieth century writers, and Contempt feels relevant even today. It’s a tale of a writer who is commissioned to write scripts but feels they are below him, as well as a tale of relationships, psychological intrigue, and a masterclass in stark, realistic observation. The book was adapted into a film by Godard in 1963, but predictably enough, we still prefer the book.
Joan Didion - Play It As It Lays (1970)
Sometimes the most obvious selections are the most important. Didion’s masterpiece has been hailed as amongst the finest books of the past 100 years, and in 84 chapters of terse, visual prose, gives us a picture of the breakdown of Maria, a struggling actor in LA who is facing various personal trials.
Eve Babitz - Slow Days, Fast Company (1977)
A visual artist and author who’s enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, Babitz grew up in Hollywood around people like Marcel Duchamp, Jim Morrison and Harrison Ford. She wrote for various magazines and her books blurred the lines between memoir and novel, with tales that capture various snapshots of Los Angeles and Hollywood in the sixties and seventies.
Steve Erickson - Zeroville (2007)
A powerful take on the transformation of the film world in the 1970s, Zeroville follows the dreamlike tale of a young, abrasive architecture student trying to become a set builder in Hollywood as things transform around him. Though it was adapted by James Franco and Seth Rogen into a fairly bad film in 2019, the book remains a stunning piece of work.
James Lever - Me, Cheeta (2008)
Amongst the most audacious novels to make this list and about cinema, this fictional autobiography is told from the perspective of Cheeta, a chimpanzee who is a star in the golden age of Hollywood. The book is hilarious, brilliantly satirical, and surprisingly poignant. It was longlisted for the Booker in 2009 and remains Lever’s only work to date.
Charles Yu - Interior Chinatown (2020)
A brilliant work that explores the grey areas between the formats of screenplay and novel, written partially as both, Interior Chinatown tells the tale of Willis Wu, who plays a ‘generic Asian man’ in Hollywood and longs to ascend to the level of ‘Kung Fu guy’. It’s a sharp tale of lack of representation, bias and a masterful exercise in shifting between styles and even genres without missing a beat.