by James Franco
This had a very James Franco feel about it.I felt the stories were a bit exaggerated with the sex, drugs, alcohol and violence but being non-American I'm unfamiliar with the Palo Alto area, and American teen life in general. Overall I enjoyed Franco's writing, its not quite the polished stories of b...
James Franco needs someone to take down his ego.
This is the first thing I've read by Ali Smith, so forgive me if I gush over elements that may seem tiresome to those of longer acquaintance. From a slight and silly premise (at a fancy dinner party in Greenwich, a man goes upstairs and locks himself into the guest suite), Smith develops an original...
Rating: 3.875* of fiveThe Book Report: Sixteen short stories about adolescent life in upper middle class America. The author hailing from there, he's written about Palo Alto, California. It could as easily be Cedar Park, Texas, or Rockville Centre, New York. The stories are very much in the vein of ...
Proposition: Palo Alto is a bad book.Proof: Left to the reader as an exercise.Just kidding. You really shouldn't do this exercise.
This collection is so violent, there's almost nothing else to say about it. There's sexual violence, racial violence, vandalism, drug abuse, suicidal acts, vehicular homicide, and not a single sympathetic or redeemable character. Was this what it was like for Franco growing up in Palo Alto?In any ca...