тАЬA lost classic┬а.┬а.┬а. the history of a horror-film star and a treatise on human frailty┬а.┬а.┬а. is back to be savored and marveled at anewтАЭ (James Ellroy, New York TimesтАУbestselling author of the Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy).
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Simon Moro, a sixty-eight-year-old star, is making his last picture, a low-budget remake of Edgar Allan PoeтАЩs The Raven. Moro, infuriated by the bland horror movies of his day, sees his own careerтАФeven as it endsтАФas an ongoing effort to wallop the public with an overwhelming moral shock. And he succeeds when an elaborate publicity stunt turns into a gruesome and grand personal statement. As MoroтАЩs life reels toward its macabre end, it also reels backward through lies and evasions to show its surprising beginning. Underneath his Frankensteinian exaggeration, Moro has a vivid and humane story to tell, even as the coffins break open and dark, erotic secrets are revealed. Brock Brower has taken the horror film in all its gory glory to create a book that recycles pop material into literature, creating a Dickensian tale of America.
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тАЬA wonderful book┬а.┬а.┬а. Like a circus with several brilliant performances going on at the same time┬а.┬а.┬а. A real breaking through. I donтАЩt think anybody ever again will be able to dabble politely in mixing тАШreal lifeтАЩ and fiction.тАЭ тАФJoan Didion, New York TimesтАУbestselling author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem
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тАЬThe way the book skewers societyтАЩs obsession with celebrity culture is even more valid today than when it was written, proving that great art stands the test of time.тАЭ тАФForbes
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тАЬA cult novel that amounts to a loving satiric tribute to cinema schlockmeister Roger Corman.тАЭ тАФNew York Post
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