Hollywood Park: A Memoir

Mikel Jollett

May 2020 · Sold by Celadon Books

About this eBook

**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**

“A Gen-X This Boy’s Life...Music and his fierce brilliance boost Jollett; a visceral urge to leave his background behind propels him to excel... In the end, Jollett shakes off the past to become the captain of his own soul. Hollywood Park is a triumph."
—O, The Oprah Magazine

"This moving and profound memoir is for anyone who loves a good redemption story."
—Good Morning America, 20 Books We're Excited for in 2020

"Several years ago, Jollett began writing Hollywood Park, the gripping and brutally honest memoir of his life. Published in the middle of the pandemic, it has gone on to become one of the summer’s most celebrated books and a New York Times best seller..."
–Los Angeles Magazine

HOLLYWOOD PARK is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country’s most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer.

We were never young. We were just too afraid of ourselves. No one told us who we were or what we were or where all our parents went. They would arrive like ghosts, visiting us for a morning, an afternoon. They would sit with us or walk around the grounds, to laugh or cry or toss us in the air while we screamed. Then they’d disappear again, for weeks, for months, for years, leaving us alone with our memories and dreams, our questions and confusion. ...

So begins Hollywood Park, Mikel Jollett’s remarkable memoir. His story opens in an experimental commune in California, which later morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the country’s most infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leader’s mandate, all children, including Jollett and his older brother, were separated from their parents when they were six months old, and handed over to the cult’s “School.” After spending years in what was essentially an orphanage, Mikel escaped the cult one morning with his mother and older brother. But in many ways, life outside Synanon was even harder and more erratic.

In his raw, poetic and powerful voice, Jollett portrays a childhood filled with abject poverty, trauma, emotional abuse, delinquency and the lure of drugs and alcohol. Raised by a clinically depressed mother, tormented by his angry older brother, subjected to the unpredictability of troubled step-fathers and longing for contact with his father, a former heroin addict and ex-con, Jollett slowly, often painfully, builds a life that leads him to Stanford University and, eventually, to finding his voice as a writer and musician.

Hollywood Park is told at first through the limited perspective of a child, and then broadens as Jollett begins to understand the world around him. Although Mikel Jollett’s story is filled with heartbreak, it is ultimately an unforgettable portrayal of love at its fiercest and most loyal.

Ratings and reviews

This book is really good and is told from the perspective of Mikel roughly 5 years old. He shares all of his experiments from the time that his mother and grandparents rescue him and his older brother from the Synanon. His mother is a bit unstable and suffers from severe depression (or deep russian as Mikel calls it). He is in a complete culture shock as he relearns the whole world around him. All he knows is the life inside of Synanon and the life outside of Synanon and they are very very different places. He never really understands what is happening to him and his brother. I did find it a bit hard to follow at times because the book is so well written in the perspective of his younger self. It literally sounds as if Mikel is telling the story when he is younger even with some random thoughts and mindless wondering. Overall, this memoir was really great!

I absolutely love Airborne Toxic Event and it was so much fun to be able to read about the life of Mickel Jollet and boy was it a wild ride! It is amazing how he was able to go through what he did and still rise above it to become that man he is today. This book starts out at Synanon. It was cool to see it from his perspective as a child who did not know better and thought it was fine. Then there is the escape and meeting his grandparents and how the concept of family was so foreign to him. The excitement kept going from there and sadly so did many hardships, especially with his mother. Those parts were tough reads at times. I much preferred the sections with Mikel's dad and Bonnie. This is a great memoir and I am glad to have read it!

Boy was this book a wild read! There were so many ups and downs, though sadly more downs than ups. It was a fascinating story nonetheless! I am impressed that Mikel could put together this memoir and remember so much. From being in the school at Synanon to fleeing to Oregon with his mom and brother to escape the cult and his escapades from then on in California with his dad and Bonnie and then to college and forming the band. I enjoyed how Mikel wrote it to reflect his age so that when he was young he thought his mother had deep russian and then as he got older he realized it was depression. I felt so sorry for him having to deal with trying to be older to take care of his mother when it should have been the other way around. And some of the things he did (like smoking and drinking) happened when he was so young. I would forget his age as I read until he would mention that he just passed his 11th birthday. It was sobering. I really enjoyed this book (especially his dad and Bonnie!) and I am so glad that he was able to be strong and turn his life around despite the hardship of his childhood. I actually have one of his songs and it is great that I can now put a face and story to it. I would definitely recommend this book for those looking for a really interesting memoir.

About the author

Mikel Jollett is the frontman of the indie band The Airborne Toxic Event. Prior to forming the band, Jollett graduated with honors from Stanford University. He was an on-air columnist for NPR's All Things Considered, an editor-at-large for Men's Health and an editor at Filter magazine. His fiction has been published in McSweeney's.