SOURCE: A review of Hollywood, in Small Press, Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 36.

In the review below, Funari provides a brief plot summary of the novel Hollywood.

The movie-making machinations of the title town are exposed in this thinly veiled roman à clef about a hard-drinking poet-novelist turned screenwriter. Presumably based on his experiences writing the movie, Barfly, Bukowski lays open the absurdity and egotism of the film industry from the worm's-eye view of a screenwriter.

Harry Chinanski has been asked by Jon Pinchot, a French director, to write a screenplay. Pinchot doesn't seem to care what the story is about. Neither does Chinanski; he's more concerned about where his next drink is coming from, and when. Sarah, his wife, is amenable to all this, matching her husband drink for drink and concerned only about getting home in time to feed their five cats. The couple takes a precarious journey through...