Hollywood's Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A.
The quintessential biography of Eve Babitz (1943-2021), the brilliant chronicler of 1960s and 70s Hollywood hedonism and one of the most original American voices of her time.
Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s was the pop culture capital of the world—a movie factory, a music factory, a dream factory. Eve Babitz was the ultimate factory girl, a pure product of LA.
It was almost twenty years after her last book was published, and only a few years before her death in 2021 that Babitz became a literary star, recognized as not just an essential L.A. writer, but the essential. This late-blooming vogue bloomed, in large part, because of a magazine profile by Lili Anolik, who, in 2010, began obsessively pursuing Babitz, a recluse since burning herself up in a fire in the 90s.
Anolik’s elegant and provocative book is equal parts biography and detective story. It is also on dangerously intimate terms with its subject: artist, writer, muse, and one-woman zeitgeist, Eve Babitz.
Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s was the pop culture capital of the world—a movie factory, a music factory, a dream factory. Eve Babitz was the ultimate factory girl, a pure product of LA.
It was almost twenty years after her last book was published, and only a few years before her death in 2021 that Babitz became a literary star, recognized as not just an essential L.A. writer, but the essential. This late-blooming vogue bloomed, in large part, because of a magazine profile by Lili Anolik, who, in 2010, began obsessively pursuing Babitz, a recluse since burning herself up in a fire in the 90s.
Anolik’s elegant and provocative book is equal parts biography and detective story. It is also on dangerously intimate terms with its subject: artist, writer, muse, and one-woman zeitgeist, Eve Babitz.
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Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
Hollywood’s Eve by Lili Anolik
274 pages
What’s it about?
This is a biography of Eve Babitz- although it reads more like a love letter. Babitz was a fixture on the L.A. social scene in the 1960’s and 70’s. She eventually becomes a writer whose work has recently been re-discovered.
What did it make me think?
What an interesting time period to be in L.A. I wish I was more interested in Eve Babitz...
Should I read it?
I very easily could have put this book down, but I was on a long flight so I read it all. For me it was just frenetic. Lots and lots of name dropping but no cohesive story. For example, “In 1962, Hopps left Ferus in the hands of partner Irving Blum in order to accept the position of director of the Pasadena Art Museum. His September show, New Paintings of Common Objects, featuring Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Joe Goode, and Andy Warhol ,among others, was the first pop-art exhibition in the U.S., bearing out New York, still under the sway of the abstract expressionists, by nearly six months.” Lots of events and people sited, especially in the first half of the book. Even after finishing the book I never got a grasp of who Eve really was, or found her very compelling.
Quote-
“To be Eve Babitz is a daunting prospect even if you happen to be Babitz. On the other hand, though, her humanness is a quality I’ve taken largely on faith. Meaning intellectually I know she’s human, while emotionally I know no such thing”
If you liked this try-
Just Kids by Patti Smith
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Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur
Hollywood’s Eve by Lili Anolik
274 pages
What’s it about?
This is a biography of Eve Babitz- although it reads more like a love letter. Babitz was a fixture on the L.A. social scene in the 1960’s and 70’s. She eventually becomes a writer whose work has recently been re-discovered.
What did it make me think?
What an interesting time period to be in L.A. I wish I was more interested in Eve Babitz...
Should I read it?
I very easily could have put this book down, but I was on a long flight so I read it all. For me it was just frenetic. Lots and lots of name dropping but no cohesive story. For example, “In 1962, Hopps left Ferus in the hands of partner Irving Blum in order to accept the position of director of the Pasadena Art Museum. His September show, New Paintings of Common Objects, featuring Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Joe Goode, and Andy Warhol ,among others, was the first pop-art exhibition in the U.S., bearing out New York, still under the sway of the abstract expressionists, by nearly six months.” Lots of events and people sited, especially in the first half of the book. Even after finishing the book I never got a grasp of who Eve really was, or found her very compelling.
Quote-
“To be Eve Babitz is a daunting prospect even if you happen to be Babitz. On the other hand, though, her humanness is a quality I’ve taken largely on faith. Meaning intellectually I know she’s human, while emotionally I know no such thing”
If you liked this try-
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur
Cool era, cool Lady. I devoured this book about the eccentric life and times of Eve, Babitz, self-proclaimed adventuress, visual artist, writer, and veritable Hollywood IT Girl of the 60s and 70s. At that time, LA was the pop-culture center of the world and Eve had a hand in everything! It's very Forest Gump-esque in that her coming of age story captures the zeitgeist of that era. This book is the perfect read if you want to take a trip back in time to those sun-soaked, slow days and fast company.
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