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Lunch » Tags » Book » Reviews » Stardust: A Novel

Stardust: A Novel

1 rating: 3.0

A book by Joseph Kanon

Starred Review. James Ellroy fans will find a lot to like in this gritty look at post-WWII Hollywood from Edgar-winner Kanon (Los Alamos). Ben Collier, recently returned to the U.S. from service in the Signal Corps in Europe, travels to California after … see full wiki

Tags: Book

Author: Joseph Kanon

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

Publisher: Atria

1 review about Stardust: A Novel

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Hollywood at war in peace

Oct 23, 2009

by TStocksl
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More

Exclusive to the Lunch Network

Rating:

Kind of a follow up to his earlier The Good German: A Novel, Kanon here carries the post World War II story home from Germany to Hollywood, where main character Ben has been assigned to edit an Army documentary on the concentration camps before he is mustered out into civilian life. But shortly before his return, his brother is badly injured in a fall from an apartment house balcony and lies in a coma. While Ben and his brother Danny have been mostly estranged since their parents divorce and have taken different paths, Ben spends the rest of the book figuring out what Danny was doing, why he fell (or was pushed? Or jumped?), and who he knew that might have led to these questions..

Ksnon mixes a loosely historical story line and a few historical characters with his fictional action to adeptly capture the feel of the time. Along the way we see postwar Hollywood at work and play, flush with wartime profits but worried about the post-war world, the studio system still strong but under government attack--and the uneasy stress of dealing with Communism as America's former ally quickly became its Cold War enemy.

Some will read it for the political aspects, some for the glimpse of Hollywood, others for the mystery. Kanon writes well enough to keep the story bubbling along on all three levels. As with Good German, Stardust feels a little fat in the middle; 506 pages is longish for a mystery, even one with all these elements. Kanon's writing is a level above the boilerplate of many mystery writers, but the occasional cliche slips into the dialogue and Kanon at times relies too much on internal thought dialogue (do people really think this way? I doubt it) to drive the story.

But the more familiar and friendly territory of Hollywood and the movies makes this book score an extra star in my rating.

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