Monday 25 March 2013

I Did Stay Home...Reading This Novel!

dear readers,

A trip down golden hollywood road...

(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).


I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME 
Written by Horace McCoy
genre: literary fiction

4 STARS

Ralph and Mona are down and out movie extras waiting for their big break into Hollywood. As Ralph's accent holds him back he becomes desperate to change his luck.  During a court trial of a friend Mona is held for contempt and leads herself and Ralph into Hollywood society.  Ralph finds himself being led into a world that will test his morals and desperation.

I immensely enjoyed my first novel by Horace McCoy.  McCoy's writing reminds me of Cormac McCarthy and James M. Cain's as it is straight to the point and gritty.  We always get the shiny happily ever after stories of the golden age of Hollywood.  In "I Should Have Stayed Home" it further opened my eyes to those who do not make as stars.  I was grabbed from the opening scene of a court trial to the end of the novel.  It was one of my read till I finish novels.  I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a gripping story.






I am hoping to read McCoy's most popular novel They Shoot Horses Don't They set in the Depression Era.  Stayed tuned for a review...




Horace Stanley McCoy (1897–1955) was an American novelist whose gritty, hard-boiled novels documented the hardships Americans faced during the Depression and postwar periods. McCoy grew up in Tennessee and Texas; after serving in the air force during World War I, he worked as a journalist, film actor, and screenplay writer. He also wrote five novels, including They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935) and the noir classic Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye(1948). Though underappreciated in his own time, McCoy is now recognized as a peer of Dashiell Hammett and James Cain. He died in Beverly Hills, California, in 1955.

love,
kris

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