The Los Angeles Diaries - Softcover

James Brown

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747570183 ISBN 13: 9780747570189

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

Renowned novelist, James Brown's searing memoir is a wrenching yet often funny chronicle of loss and reaffirmation written in response to a life marked by alcohol and drug abuse; mental illness; economic hardship; and the suicides of his two siblings. Harrowing, brutally honest, and no-holds-barred, "The Los Angeles Diaries" unveils Brown's struggle for survival, mining his perilous past to present the inspiring story of his redemption. Beautifully written, moving, and lined with dark humour, these 12 interconnected confessional chapters address personal failure; heartbreak; the trials of writing for Hollywood; and the life-shattering events that finally convinced him he must 'change or die'.

About this title

About the Author:

James Brown is the author of the novels LUCKY TOWN, FINAL PERFORMANCE, HOT WIRE and THE SECOND STORY THEATRE AND TWO ENCORES. He's received numerous fellowships and awards including the Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction, and is a staff member of the Squaw Valley Writers Conference. He lives in Lake Arrowhead, CA.

From Publishers Weekly:

Novelist Brown (Lucky Town; Hot Wire; etc.) mines the explosive territory of his own harsh and complicated life in this gut-wrenching memoir. The youngest child of a mentally ill mother and an absent father, Brown (b. 1957) grew up in the shadow of Hollywood with two older siblings: a brother, a moderately successful actor until his suicide at 27, and a sister who also dreamed of acting but took her life at 44. Brown's tales are harrowing: at five, he and his mother traveled from their San Jose home to San Francisco, where she set an apartment building ablaze. Arson couldn't be proven, but she was imprisoned for tax evasion. At nine, he shared his first drink and high with his siblings; when he was 12, a neighbor attempted to molest him; by 30 he was an alcohol- and cocaine-addicted writer-in-residence. During his marriage's early years, Brown often left his wife to feed his addictions, repeatedly promising her he'd reform. Desperate to fuel his writing career, he attempted screenwriting, but everything he pitched seemed too dark. Brown's genius compels readers to sympathize with him in every instance. Juxtaposed with the shimmery unreality of Hollywood, these essays bitterly explore real life, an existence careening between great promise and utter devastation. Brown's revelations have no smugness or self-congratulation; they reek of remorse and desire, passion and futility. Brown flays open his own tortured skin looking for what blood beats beneath and why. The result is a grimly exquisite memoir that reads like a noir novel but grips unrelentingly like the hand of a homeless drunk begging for help.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0747570183
• ISBN 13: 9780747570189
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224