The City of Glendale is now onto the 9th One Book – One Glendale. And the selected book comes from the author Nina Revoyr, The Age of Dreaming.
I have to admit that I almost stopped reading this book in a couple of spots. I don’t want to say the book was simplistic but everything fell into place neatly. Even the murder and racism and Hollywood-ism’s were all tied with generic bows.
The Age of Dreaming tells the story of Jun Nakayama a silent film star who we see in flashbacks to his acting days and then in old age in the 1960’s. He is a native of Japan who comes to America to study and ends up (in short order) as a film star. But tumult, in the form of two leading ladies and the murder of a director lead him to stop acting.
The lead character is naïve to the life and people around him in both the 20’s and 60’s which makes it hard to really root for him. I kept wanting to tell the guy that girl A loves him but he doesn’t recognize it in the book until near the end. He doesn’t recognize that the director is gay despite numerous ham-handed clues from the author too.
I know that stupid decisions are needed to move some plots forward. Sometimes the obstacle for a character is self-created but everyone in this book seems to be creating issues that were a small step away from cliché. A producer who changes the script from thoughtful drama to action oriented. The fading star who has a crush on the director. The starlet with the stage mom and crush on the director.
I felt like there was a thoughtful book about minorities in early film that could have been written or a straight up mystery with more Ellroy or Hammett to it. This book just did not do it for me.
For beer to go with the book, my first thought went to the Cream Ale from Angel City Brewing. Although the name of the beer is Marilyn, it is still movie related and life tragedy related as well. Another is Craftsman Brewing and their 1903 lager which isn’t as cool nowadays that LA has more breweries but a chapter of the book is set in Pasadena so I think it works especially since the book is light as a feather like the beer. If I could be snarky, I would recommend the Espresso Stout from Hitachino Nest. It matches the characters heritage and will keep you up when the book isn’t holding your interest.