Jon Robin Baitz

A very simple, perfectly observed slip of a novel about growing up in a long, long gone Hollywood. O’Brien, the son of stars from early Hollywood who soaked their marriage in booze has written an almost sui-generis pre-coming of age story - I say almost – because his writing has a Fitzgeraldian elegance to it, and contains a description of riding horses with his dad from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara through the mountains that is indelible.