cover image The Martini Shot: A Hollywood Novel

The Martini Shot: A Hollywood Novel

Peter Craig. William Morrow & Company, $22 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-688-15658-9

In movie talk, ""the martini shot"" is the last take before the film wraps and the set is struck. In this sharply observed debut, the title refers to a family's last chance to get it together. Charlie West is an aging alcoholic action star for whom the concept of family is somewhat alien, since he has collected a number of ex-wives, mistresses and children. Ava, one of his daughters, doesn't know her father, but is trying to befriend him as she works his shoots as a production assistant. Tough, lively ex-wife Camilla likes Charlie but sees him for what he is, while Charlie's new, young wife, Barbara, is a managerial enabler, focused on continuing her role as ""wife of star."" Another user is the toady Sloan, Charlie's driver and fetch-it man. Enter Matt Ravendahl, 18, whose family runs the woodsy alcohol treatment facility in Oregon where Charlie stopped in long enough to conceive him. Having grown up knowing he is Charlie's illegitimate son, Matt arrives in L.A. to create some kind of relationship with his dad, soon forms a bond with his half-sister, Ava, and sends Charlie into a tailspin of drugging and boozing. The climax to this sad tale comes after the premiere of Charlie's new (and hilariously rotten) movie, when Matt and Charlie set off together for Oregon in a trailer. Craig clearly knows Hollywood and is blessed with the ear and eye of a satirist, unfolding his story smoothly in flashbacks of lunacy and pathos. The only problem is his material: Charlie's textbook Hollywood narcissism leaves little room for Craig to develop his characters or tell us much about them (or their milieu). As a result, the recital of Charlie's shortcomings is sad but far from tragic, and it keeps the reader from becoming emotionally involved. Author tour. Agent, Lisa Bankoff of ICM; editor, Zachary Schisgal. (Sept.) FYI: Craig is the son of actress Sally Field. The Martini Shot won the Michener-Copernicus Award for best first novel.