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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Reading this book with a bad case of elephantiasis makes you realize one of Tarantino's strengths is assembling a team around him that can enhance his strengths of storytelling and characters with visual design. A good editor and producer would tell him that he should do with this novel like he did Kill Bill and divide it into two volumes. Also a producer would remind him that in this novel, threads of all the characters but one just stop. They're forgotten and we're left with a very good scene for an ending though the age of one character leaves one a little uneasy.
Strengths: the western backstory is captivating. I'd welcome a novel of just that any day. Very readable and some great standalone chapters.
Weaknesses: sometimes it feels like Wikipedia articles or lists provided by an opinionated man. The introduction of several plot points that then just disappear.
May QT write more to rate.
Strengths: the western backstory is captivating. I'd welcome a novel of just that any day. Very readable and some great standalone chapters.
Weaknesses: sometimes it feels like Wikipedia articles or lists provided by an opinionated man. The introduction of several plot points that then just disappear.
May QT write more to rate.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Big fan of Rick Dalton, not so much Cliff Booth. Felt like Tarantino went more experimental than he’s willing to go with his movies; some of the changes work and some don’t.
Five stars for the whole package of movie & book. The movie was my favorite film of 2019, and the book isn’t so much a novelization as a companion piece with backstory, scenes from the movie from a different character’s perspective, and fresh material that expands on critical moments from the film. The theme of nostalgia comes through as well on the page as on the screen, and Tarantino makes a valiant effort to reproduce the multilayered sounds of the film. Perfect vacation read.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
4.5 stars I think - yes it’s not un-problematic at points (though it partially rectifies some of the problems with the movie while creating other new ones), the prose is generally unremarkable, and it def could’ve used some better editing (there are a couple passages that are almost duplicates) - but it’s a very readable and fun world and character building, has interesting divergences from the film, and actually packs a little more emotion than expected. So basically if you’re any part a fan, you’ll enjoy it and it’s a lot of fun.
Ok so I think the book has some slight social and political issues but as a showcase of late 60s Hollywood and you can feel the love for the time period and the movies and tv of the time. I kind of wanted to know more about what happens with the Manson family and Polanski family with the events of the movie happening but the book isn’t interested in that but still it’s a fun ride and I loved all the little side stuff that wasn’t in the movie.
I'm not really sure what I read or how it really corresponds to the film that much, or whether it was written before or after, but this is basically just a book for people who love the film industry to indulge in I guess. I was super bored with the majority of the story and I actually skipped a few pages half way through because I couldn't be bothered to read anymore movie names as they came up every second sentence. I'm much more of a book reader than a film watcher and so this probably wasn't the best book for me. I much preferred the movie actually which almost never happens haha! Love that the book is made to look like a cheap Western paperback though and actually was really invested in a few parts of it, but largely I was just bored and glad to finish it.
For Quentin Tarantino, nothing is sacred: not the arc of history, nor the untouchable legacy of Bruce Lee. The only exception is cinema: a vessel of fantasy powerful enough even to burn down the third reich. This is appropriate for a man who has almost exclusively rested his storied career on morality plays, where the power of cinema allows him to explore and live inbetween the gaps of acceptability. What is 'right' may often prevail, but Tarantino is unafraid to entertain thorny thoughts and boundaries in his pursuit. He is a provocateur, and if there's are words to describe this novelisation, then 'provocative' is at the front of the pack.
It's easy to forget thanks to DiCaprio and Pitt's charisma that OUATIH protagonists are deeply unpleasant people - a fact that Tarantino is remorseless in pursuing now that he is able to excavate their inner thoughts. This is a novel drenched in pulp: direct, honest, and occasionally uncomfortable. There's a reason everyone can't stop yammering on about Cliff Booth's newly expunged backstory, which does away with the ambiguous presentation of the film (along with Brad Pitt's iconic charm) to portray Booth as the merciless killer he always was. It is impossible to read OUATIH and not comment or react to the squirminess of these details: they are an ice cold glass of water to the face.
Get on board with them, however, and you'll be treated to as addictive a novel as I've read in quite a while. I was eager to discover what Tarantino's novelistic voice would sound like, and the answer is both surprising and expected. His prose is imperfect, often falling into repetition, but direct, theatrical and enthusiastic. A whole chapter is dedicated to Booth's opinions on foreign language films (opinions that are most likely that of the author), but it is communicated with such mastery of knowledge and enthusiasm, that it becomes rollicking. Apparently, Tarantino's next work is a book of film criticism: if this novel is any indication, it's a choice that will pay off in spades.
But he also merges this style with real storytelling verve. I've often thought that Stephen King and Tarantino are similar in fixations and style, and OUATIH proves that to be so. There's a chapter here where Margaret Qualley's character 'Pussycat' performs a "kreepy krawl" - a naked jaunt through a wealthy couple's house - that feels ripped from a King novel, as Tarantino stretches the tension to breaking point, whilst also experimenting with Pussycat's headpspace as infected by Manson's voice and teachings. It's electric.
That merging of King-pulp and film know-how feels emblematic of the story as a whole. Tarantino has revised history before, but OUATIH is the first time that the lines between reality and fiction are most blurred. The fabricated history of Rick Dalton is delivered with the same passion and attention-to-detail as Tarantino recounts real events, and the effect is quietly eerie, as the two are granted equal weight as you read. In the film, there's a sadness to the ending: an implicit realisation that this outcome isn't real, that it's just a dream. By almost entirely eluding the brutal final showdown in the book, Tarantino is able to sketch out his fictional history without ending on such a tricky final note. It's an act of indulgence, sure, but one infused with generosity and love for a time and people that are long gone. I had a great time.
It's easy to forget thanks to DiCaprio and Pitt's charisma that OUATIH protagonists are deeply unpleasant people - a fact that Tarantino is remorseless in pursuing now that he is able to excavate their inner thoughts. This is a novel drenched in pulp: direct, honest, and occasionally uncomfortable. There's a reason everyone can't stop yammering on about Cliff Booth's newly expunged backstory, which does away with the ambiguous presentation of the film (along with Brad Pitt's iconic charm) to portray Booth as the merciless killer he always was. It is impossible to read OUATIH and not comment or react to the squirminess of these details: they are an ice cold glass of water to the face.
Get on board with them, however, and you'll be treated to as addictive a novel as I've read in quite a while. I was eager to discover what Tarantino's novelistic voice would sound like, and the answer is both surprising and expected. His prose is imperfect, often falling into repetition, but direct, theatrical and enthusiastic. A whole chapter is dedicated to Booth's opinions on foreign language films (opinions that are most likely that of the author), but it is communicated with such mastery of knowledge and enthusiasm, that it becomes rollicking. Apparently, Tarantino's next work is a book of film criticism: if this novel is any indication, it's a choice that will pay off in spades.
But he also merges this style with real storytelling verve. I've often thought that Stephen King and Tarantino are similar in fixations and style, and OUATIH proves that to be so. There's a chapter here where Margaret Qualley's character 'Pussycat' performs a "kreepy krawl" - a naked jaunt through a wealthy couple's house - that feels ripped from a King novel, as Tarantino stretches the tension to breaking point, whilst also experimenting with Pussycat's headpspace as infected by Manson's voice and teachings. It's electric.
That merging of King-pulp and film know-how feels emblematic of the story as a whole. Tarantino has revised history before, but OUATIH is the first time that the lines between reality and fiction are most blurred. The fabricated history of Rick Dalton is delivered with the same passion and attention-to-detail as Tarantino recounts real events, and the effect is quietly eerie, as the two are granted equal weight as you read. In the film, there's a sadness to the ending: an implicit realisation that this outcome isn't real, that it's just a dream. By almost entirely eluding the brutal final showdown in the book, Tarantino is able to sketch out his fictional history without ending on such a tricky final note. It's an act of indulgence, sure, but one infused with generosity and love for a time and people that are long gone. I had a great time.