Sign-In
Cart
Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California
Paperback
Entertainment & Performing ArtsBiographies GeneralLiterary Figures
Publisher Price: $17.95
ISBN13: 9781951142629
Publisher: Tin House Books
Published: Jul 27 2021
Pages: 300
Weight: 0.75
Height: 1.20 Width: 5.40 Depth: 8.30
Language: English
In 2006, Matthew Specktor moved into a crumbling Los Angeles apartment opposite the one in which F. Scott Fitzgerald spent the last moments of his life. Fitz had been Specktor's first literary idol, someone whose own passage through Hollywood had, allegedly, broken him. Freshly divorced, professionally flailing, and reeling from his mother's cancer diagnosis, Specktor was feeling unmoored. But rather than giving in or cracking up, he embarked on an obsessive journey to make sense of the mythologies of success and failure that haunt the artist's life and the American imagination.
Part memoir, part cultural history, part portrait of place, Always Crashing in the Same Car explores Hollywood through a certain kind of collapse. It's a vibrant and intimate inspection of failure told through the lives of iconic, if under-sung, artists--Carole Eastman, Eleanor Perry, Warren Zevon, Tuesday Weld, and Hal Ashby, among others--and the author's own family history. Through this constellation of Hollywood figures, he unearths a fascinating alternate history of the city that raised him and explores the ways in which curtailed ambition, insufficiency, and loss shape all our lives.
At once deeply personal and broadly erudite, it is a story of an art form (the movies), a city (Los Angeles), and one person's attempt to create meaning out of both. Above all, Specktor creates a moving search for optimism alongside the inevitability of failure and reveals the still-resonant power of art to help us navigate the beautiful ruins that await us all.
Also in
Entertainment & Performing Arts
Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of the Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It
Quinn, Dave
Hardcover
God Bless This Mess: Learning to Live and Love Through Life's Best (and Worst) Moments
Brown, Hannah
Hardcover
The Office Bffs: Tales of the Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There
Fischer, Jenna
Kinsey, Angela
Hardcover
Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century
Galloway, Stephen
Hardcover
Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Betty White: 100 Years of Wisdom from the First Lady of Television
Sharaf, Juliana
Hardcover
The Creative Gene: How Books, Movies, and Music Inspired the Creator of Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid
Kojima, Hideo
Hardcover
Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century
Stevens, Dana
Hardcover
Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me about Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits
Witherspoon, Reese
Hardcover
Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny
Madison, Holly
Paperback
Hangin' with Winners: A Lifetime of Connections, Anecdotes and Lessons Learned
Gray, Rob
Cole, Ray
Hardcover
Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking
Buford, Bill
Paperback
Invencible (Unstoppable Spanish Edition): Cómo Descubrí Mi Fuerza a Través del Amor Y La Pérdida
Rivera, Chiquis
Paperback
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride
Elwes, Cary
Layden, Joe
Paperback
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black, New Edition: Collected Stories
Mueller, Cookie
Paperback
Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles
Rozzo, Mark
Hardcover
Double Talkin' Jive: True Rock 'n' Roll Stories from the Drummer of Guns N' Roses, the Cult, and Velvet Revolver
Eriksson, Leif
Svensson, Martin
Sorum, Matt
Hardcover
The Sad and Tragic Ending of Lucille Ball: Volume Two (1961-1989) of a Two-Part Biography
Porter, Darwin
Prince, Danforth
Paperback
Bad Motherfucker: The Life and Movies of Samuel L. Jackson, the Coolest Man in Hollywood
Edwards, Gavin
Hardcover
Orbit: The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr
Shapiro, Marc
Moura, Victor
Hardcover
Dear Bob: Bob Hope's Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.S of World War II
Hope, Linda
Bolton, Martha
Hardcover
My Dad's Funnier Than Your Dad: Growing Up with Tim Conway in the Funniest House in America
Conway, Kelly
Hardcover
Confessions of a Puppetmaster: A Hollywood Memoir of Ghouls, Guts, and Gonzo Filmmaking
Felber, Adam
Band, Charles
Hardcover
Orbit: The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr
Shapiro, Marc
Paperback
Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Dolly Parton: Country Wisdom for Life's Little Challenges
Sharaf, Juliana
Hardcover
The Essential Directors: The Art and Impact of Cinema's Most Influential Filmmakers
de Forest, Sloan
Paperback
The John Wayne Code: Wit, Wisdom and Timeless Advice
Media Lab Books
The Official John Wayne Magazine, Editors Of
Paperback
Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll
Presley, Priscilla
Paperback
The Eighth Wonder of the World: The True Story of André the Giant
Hébert, Bertrand
Laprade, Pat
Paperback
James Patterson by James Patterson: The Stories of My Life (Large Print Edition)
Patterson, James
Paperback
The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens: A Memoir of the Beales, the Maysles Brothers, and Jacqueline Kennedy
Maietta, Tony
Torre, Jerry
Paperback
The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont
Levy, Shawn
Paperback
Kevin Smith's Secret Stash: The Definitive Visual History (Classic Movies, Film History, Cinema Books)
Smith, Kevin
Hardcover
Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between)
Graham, Lauren
Paperback