cover image Hollywood Savage

Hollywood Savage

Kristin McCloy, Washington Square, $15 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-7432-8647-3

Chaos ensues in McCloy’s dizzying latest (after Some Girls) when a writer moves from New York City to L.A. to adapt his latest novel into a screenplay. Shortly after arriving in California, Miles King listens to an ambiguous voicemail message intended for his wife and begins to suspect that she, back in Manhattan, is having an affair. He uses the alleged affair as a rationale for acquiring a student mistress, Lucy, who, to make matters even more complicated, is married and has a three-year-old son. Miles’s downward spiral picks up velocity—he starts smoking again, dabbles in cocaine, cheats on Lucy—and carries him further and further from redemption. Written in journal form, the story takes the reader deep into the mind of a self-destructively hedonistic man who, despite being very hard to like at times, makes an absolutely fascinating narrator. McCloy’s raw prose and Miles’s wild unpredictability will keep readers hooked as Miles flirts with a potentially catastrophic crash and burn. (July)