Zeroville

By Steve Erickson

Book Overview

A Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Newsweek Best Book of the Year

It is an August afternoon in 1969. A hippie "family" led by Charles Manson commits five savage murders in the canyons above L.A. The same day, a young, ex-communicated theology student walks Hollywood Boulevard, having just arrived in town with the images of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift tattooed on his shaved head.

At once childlike and violent, Vikar is not a cineaste but "cineautistic," sleeping in the Roosevelt Hotel where he is haunted by the ghost of D. W. Griffith. He has stepped into the vortex of a culture in upheaval: drugs that frighten him, a sexuality that consumes him, a music he doesn't understand. He's come to Hollywood to pursue his obsession with film, only to find a Hollywood that's as indifferent to film as it is to Vikar.

While the movies have appeared in a number of Steve Erickson's novels, from Days Between Stations to The Sea Came in at Midnight, they dominate Zeroville with the force of revelation. Over the decade of the seventies and into the eighties, as the old studios crumble before the onslaught of a new renegade generation, Vikar becomes an unlikely film editor, possessed of an astonishing artistic vision. Through his encounters with starlets, burglars, revolutionaries, escorts, punk musicians and veteran film-makers, he discovers the secret that lies in every motion picture ever made. Combining an epic scope with popular accessibility in the spirit of its subject, Zeroville is the ultimate novel about the Movies, and the way we don't dream them but rather they dream us.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933372397
• ISBN13: 9781933372396
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Amazing

In college I double majored in Film and Creative Writing, so when I happened to stumble upon ZEROVILLE I felt I found the most perfect book I have ever come across. I felt like it was written FOR me. Not only does Erickson detail the GREAT gems of our cinematic history, he also weaves them in flawlessly in a mysterious and enlightening story. Vikar tends to vex us, as he so warns the people around us, but that is because he is a true innocent. Like the ghost of Montgomery Clift tells him "You got trust in your eyes, like you were just born", Vikar in essence, is a child, a child with a furious belief that movies are God. I recommend this book to ANYONE who loves movies, and I'm talking about GOOD movies, not the crap Hollywood tends to spew out, but the classic ones, the ones that really COULD and DID change the world. Great great wonderful amazing novel.

"I believe this is a very good book"

I am a big Steve Erickson fan. He is my favorite author and I have read all his books. His novels range from strange to surrealistic. "Zeroville" is one of my favorites. The lead character's name is Vikar. Like all Erickson novels, he is a man obsessed; in this case with movies. It helps if you are a movie fan. Some of the movie references are obvious and some are more obscure. You should definitely see "The Passion of Joan of Arc" and "A Place in the Sun" because they feature prominently in the plot. I don't want to go anymore into the story because I don't want to spoil anything. Let's just say this obsession leads to searching for a hidden film that is contained in every film ever made which leads to one of the most bizarre endings of any novel ever. The ending makes the films of David Lynch seem tame by comparison. "Zeroville" is mandatory reading for all Steve Erickson fans and is a great starting place for anyone who has never read any of his books. This is one of my all time favorite books. If you are looking for a unique reading experience, you should check this one out.

Zeroville - Unusual but a page-turner

Anyone who is a film buff will love his book. Though it's quirky, it is compelling and hard to put down. Steve Erickson is a wonderful writer whose knowledge of the subject matter is very impressive.

Wacky Americans

I am putting together a new Freshman level class for the Spring semester, and after reading Zeroville and several other of Erickson's books, I want to toss out all the textbooks I have assigned and replace them with Erickson's novels. He is so passionate about digging through different historic events, exploring America's bizzare and dangerous obsessions with its own exceptionalism and millennial fantasies, that Erickson outshines just about any academic text on American history and meaning (it doesn't hurt that he writes better than historians). But specifically, the way in which the character Vikar approaches reality and movies is as a complete innocent: he sees horror movies and thinks they are comedies; after watching The Sound of Music, he believes the An Trapps are a re-invention of the Manson family, trailing songs and terror throughout Europe. This narrative choice allows the reader to experience the last four decades of history and movies with completely new eyes, revealing just how odd a place and time America really is. Vikar's innocence is balanced by his violence (smashing a hippie in the head with a dinner tray because the man mis-identified the Taylor/Clift tatoo on Vikar's head) suggesting, at least to me, the public claims to innocence that the U.S. has historically claimed while it has been engaged in some of the most violent actions of the modern period. But, again, Zeroville stands up to readings on multiple levels and calls out of multiple readings. It also sheds light back on Erikson's earlier work, suggesting the linked but non-linear continuity of all his works. If you like movies, punk rock, beautiful narrative prose or just flat out, off-handed weirdness then Zeroville is the perfect drug.