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Summary
Summary
Jun Nakayama was a silent film star in the early days of Hollywood but, by 1964, he finds himself living in complete obscurity - until young writer Nick Bellinger tracks him down for an interview. When Bellinger reveals that he has written a screenplay with Nakayama in mind, Jun is intrigued by the possibilty of returning to the big screen. But he begins to worry that someone might delve too deeply into the past and uncover the events that led to the abrupt end of his career in 1922. These events include the changing social and racial tides in California and an unsolved murder.
Author Notes
Nina Revoyr was born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and a Polish-American father, and grew up in Japan, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles. She is the author of two previous novels, The Necessary Hunger and Southland, which was a BookSense 76 pick and won the Ferro Grumley and Lambda Literary Awards.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In her cunning follow-up to Southland, Revoyr returns to L.A., this time to when Sunset Boulevard was "just a dirt road" and Jun Nakayama was a famous silent film star. Prompted by a journalist's visit in 1964, 42 years after he left the screen for good, Jun revisits his youth in Japan, his discovery at L.A.'s Little Tokyo Theater, his rise to stardom and the scandalous events that led to his abrupt retreat from public life. Mixing real people with fictional characters like principled Japanese actress Hanako Minatoya, troubled starlet Elizabeth Banks (not the one in Seabiscuit), ingenue Nora Minton Niles and dashing director Ashley Bennett Tyler, Revoyr creates a vibrant portrait of a time when the film studio was "a place of serious work." As Jun reveals the secrets he has kept for decades, he uncovers new twists in his own history and comes to terms with other painful experiences he has repressed, namely his loneliness and the effects of the anti-Japanese racism he mistakenly believed he could overcome by being "as agreeable-and American-as possible." The occasional awkward transition between present and past notwithstanding, Revoyr beautifully invokes Jun's self-deceptions and his growing self-awareness. It's an enormously satisfying novel. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Few subjects generate clichés more readily than Hollywood, yet Revoyr has steered clear of every stereotype while perfectly capturing the promise of classic movie-star dreams. As in her award-winning Southland (2003), Revoyr works in two time frames to illuminate the dilemmas confronting people of Japanese descent in L.A. In this virtuoso first-person narration, the fruit of Chandler and Fitzgerald, Jun Nakayama, a box-office sensation during the silent-film era and now a recluse, is contacted in 1964 by an eager young journalist. A man so cut off from the present day he still drives a Packard and wears clothes considered elegant decades ago, Jun is initially reluctant to talk about his past but is soon swept away on a tide of vivid memories. Writing with exquisite subtlety and evoking noirish suspense, Revoyr brings early, still beautifully rural Hollywood back to life in all its brash excitement through Jun's cautious eyes. As he recalls the deep joy of acting, his heartbreaking love affairs with pioneering women, the unsolved murder of his director, and the racism that shadowed his every move, Revoyr questions our notion of success and lays bare the thorny paradoxes fame still poses for people of color. Rare indeed is a novel this deeply pleasurable and significant.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2008 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Aging Japanese actor, a former silent-screen sex symbol, is offered a second chance at notoriety. Revoyr's third novel (Southland, 2003, etc.) is loosely based on a scandal of Hollywood's silent era. It's 1964, and Jun Nakayama, 73, is content to dwell in prosperous obscurity, monitoring his real-estate investments and hiking the Hollywood Hills. But troubling memories of his days as a controversial movie star resurface when journalist Nick Bellinger interviews Jun about his flaming youth and leading ladies, including siren Elizabeth Banks and Nora Niles, an ingnue dominated by a harridan of a stage mother. This being Los Angeles, Nick is shopping a screenplay with a star turn for Jun--as an elderly Japanese man who is mistaken for a former war criminal by his rural California neighbors. Although excited by the prospect of working again, Jun is loath to revisit the circumstances that prematurely curtailed his career in 1922. Seamlessly interwoven flashbacks detail Jun's ascension to stardom despite anti-Japanese prejudice. Jun's excitement almost overwhelms a nagging suspicion that a comeback might engender a deeper inquiry into Jun's role in one of early Hollywood's most lurid unsolved mysteries. Ashley Tyler, a British director, was found murdered in his bungalow. There are three suspects: Elizabeth and Nora, who each had romantic designs on Ashley, and Jun, Ashley's rival for Elizabeth. All three are cleared, but Elizabeth drinks herself to death and Nora is forever consigned to her mother's less than tender mercies. But the murder isn't the only reason Jun is publicity shy. He harbors a guilty secret, which the hoopla surrounding a movie release will expose. Allowing a first-person narrator to withhold the truth until the climactic moment is a neat trick, one handily accomplished mostly through Jun's convincing voice, which Revoyr conveys in lucid, precise and period-appropriate prose. Although the pace lags in sections--notably a cross-country train tour which seems to occur in real time--all in all this is a pulse-quickening, deliciously ironic serving of Hollywood noir. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Tokyo-born Revoyr's third novel (after the award-winning Southland) tells a deceptively simple story about the first days of Hollywood. Through the unfolding recollections of Jun Nakayama, a Japanese immigrant-turned-A-list actor, it zooms in on the sexism and anti-Asian bigotry of the early 20th century. It is 1964, and a zealous reporter tracks down the now-retired 73-year-old Nakayama for an article he's writing. At first, Nakayama is reluctant to be interviewed, but he ultimately can't resist the spotlight. Still, considering that his acting career ended in 1922, he finds the journalist's interest baffling. As they talk, the writer's queries send Nakayama on a quest that uncovers long-buried secrets. The unsolved murder of his favorite director, coupled with sexual peccadilloes, police payoffs, and massive cover-ups, are woven into a tale showcasing human foibles and heroism. In the end, Nakayama discovers what it means to take personal responsibility and stand up for what's right. Fast-moving, riveting, unpredictable, and profound; highly recommended for all fiction collections.--Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
