Zeroville: A Novel

Steve Erickson

Apr 2013 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

The novel that inspired the film starring James Franco and Seth Rogen: “One of a kind . . . a funny, unnervingly surreal page turner” (Newsweek).
 
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post Book World, Newsweek, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review
 
Zeroville centers on the story of Vikar, a young architecture student so enthralled with the movies that his friends call him “cinéautistic.” With an intensely religious childhood behind him, and tattoos of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift on his head, he arrives in Hollywood—where he’s mistaken for a member of the Manson family and eventually scores a job as a film editor. Vikar discovers the frames of a secret film within the reels of every movie ever made, and sets about splicing them together—a task that takes on frightening theological dimensions. Electrifying and “darkly funny,” Zeroville dives into the renegade American cinema of the 1970s and ’80s and emerges into an era for which we have no name (Publishers Weekly).
 
“Funny, disturbing, daring . . . dreamlike and sometimes nightmarish.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Magnificent.” —The Believer
 
“[A] writer who has been compared to Vladimir Nabokov, Don DeLillo, and Thomas Pynchon.” —Bookmarks Magazine
 
“Erickson is as unique and vital and pure a voice as American fiction has produced.” —Jonathan Lethem

Ratings and reviews

Erickson's novel follows a strange young man named Vikar as he immerses himself in cinema.He is compelled to solve a mystery that involves a hidden image in every film ever made that is his life's mission to figure out so he can make sense of a recurring dream.This story contains many references to both the obscure and wildly popular movies that had me constantly googling to read about the plots and various actors that were featured.It is a wonderfully strange work of fiction.

This book is extraordinary and has quickly joined the shelf of my favorites.

About the author

Steve Erickson is the acclaimed author of several novels, including Arc d’X, Rubicon Beach, and Days Between Stations. Regarded as a central figure in the avant-pop movement, Erickson has been compared to J. G. Ballard and Don DeLillo, and praised by Thomas Pynchon, for his deeply imaginative fiction. In addition to his novels, he has published two works of nonfiction about American politics and culture and has written for the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, and Rolling Stone. The recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, he is presently the film critic for Los Angeles magazine and editor of the literary journal Black Clock.