Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

by Quentin Tarantino

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Publishing in a format that tips its hat to the pulp fiction genre of writing, Tarantino delivers his movie of the same name to the book world. Here, 1960’s Hollywood is brought to you by the filmmaker who loves ALL things movie-related. Movie theaters might be on hiatus, but your dream theater is within arm’s reach in this book. And, if the golden years of Hollywood are your cup of joe, then we would also direct your attention to Widespread Panic by James Ellroy.

The Instant #1 New York Times bestseller

Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited first work of fiction — at once hilarious, delicious, and brutal — is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award- winning film.

RICK DALTON – Once he had his own TV series, but now Rick’s a washed-up villain-of-the week drowning his sorrows in whiskey sours. Will a phone call from Rome save his fate or seal it?

CLIFF BOOTH – Rick’s stunt double, and the most infamous man on any movie set because he’s the only one there who might have gotten away with murder. . . .

SHARON TATE – She left Texas to chase a movie-star dream, and found it. Sharon’s salad days are now spent on Cielo Drive, high in the Hollywood Hills.

CHARLES MANSON – The ex-con’s got a bunch of zonked-out hippies thinking he’s their spiritual leader, but he’d trade it all to be a rock ‘n’ roll star.

HOLLYWOOD 1969 – YOU SHOULDA BEEN THERE

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063112520
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/29/2021
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	400,180
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 4.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Quentin Tarantino was born in 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is the writer-director of nine feature films, the winner of two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, and the author of the novel Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Cinema Speculation is his first work of nonfiction.

Editorial Reviews

Quentin Tarantino’s first novel is, to borrow a phrase from his oeuvre, a tasty beverage…He’s here to tell a story, in take-it-or-leave-it Elmore Leonard fashion, and to make room along the way to talk about some of the things he cares about — old movies, male camaraderie, revenge and redemption, music and style…In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino makes telling a page-turning story look easy, which is the hardest trick of all.”  — Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“Classic, sparks-flying Tarantino…Tarantino’s explosive dialogue, with its blend of streetwise and formal cadences, is almost as effective written down as read aloud…Far from being the throwaway artifact it sometimes pretends to be, Tarantino’s first novel may even, as he’s hinted, herald the start of a new direction for this relentlessly inventive director.”  — The Washington Post

“Tarantino, celebrated for his screenplays, truly is a literary force, stepping forward as a novelist adept at using an omniscient point of view to powerful effect in a novel driven by its characters’ inner lives and smart, witty, and salty dialogue of propulsion and nuance, hilarity and heartbreak….It will also offer a stereoscopic experience for most readers as they envision the characters as played by the movie’s cast…a doubling that will inspire fanatic comparisons between film and page. But this is a work of literary art in its own right, a novel that, if the movie didn’t exist, would captivate readers with its own knowing vision and zestful power.”  — Donna Seaman, Booklist 

From the Publisher

Tarantino, celebrated for his screenplays, truly is a literary force, stepping forward as a novelist adept at using an omniscient point of view to powerful effect in a novel driven by its characters’ inner lives and smart, witty, and salty dialogue of propulsion and nuance, hilarity and heartbreak….It will also offer a stereoscopic experience for most readers as they envision the characters as played by the movie’s cast…a doubling that will inspire fanatic comparisons between film and page. But this is a work of literary art in its own right, a novel that, if the movie didn’t exist, would captivate readers with its own knowing vision and zestful power.” 

Donna Seaman

Quentin Tarantino’s first novel is, to borrow a phrase from his oeuvre, a tasty beverage…He’s here to tell a story, in take-it-or-leave-it Elmore Leonard fashion, and to make room along the way to talk about some of the things he cares about — old movies, male camaraderie, revenge and redemption, music and style…In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino makes telling a page-turning story look easy, which is the hardest trick of all.” 

Dwight Garner

Classic, sparks-flying Tarantino…Tarantino’s explosive dialogue, with its blend of streetwise and formal cadences, is almost as effective written down as read aloud…Far from being the throwaway artifact it sometimes pretends to be, Tarantino’s first novel may even, as he’s hinted, herald the start of a new direction for this relentlessly inventive director.” 

The Washington Post

This examination of a changing Hollywood entertainment industry in the late 1960s is, of course, a self-described novelization of the highly acclaimed Quentin Tarantino film ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Actor Jennifer Jason Leigh offers a predominantly tired, flat, and unenthusiastic narration of this profanity-laced audiobook. Rife with nonlinear storylines and extreme violence, this effort allows you to cast and imagine the film for yourself. It’s not really a novel, but rather a listless reading of an expanded screenplay, despite some added character backstories. There are frequent, somewhat unsettling references to actual people and locations in storylines that are not actual or real for those people. Those who enthusiastically enjoyed the film would likely enjoy this audio effort as an allied enhancement. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile

This examination of a changing Hollywood entertainment industry in the late 1960s is, of course, a self-described novelization of the highly acclaimed Quentin Tarantino film ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Actor Jennifer Jason Leigh offers a predominantly tired, flat, and unenthusiastic narration of this profanity-laced audiobook. Rife with nonlinear storylines and extreme violence, this effort allows you to cast and imagine the film for yourself. It’s not really a novel, but rather a listless reading of an expanded screenplay, despite some added character backstories. There are frequent, somewhat unsettling references to actual people and locations in storylines that are not actual or real for those people. Those who enthusiastically enjoyed the film would likely enjoy this audio effort as an allied enhancement. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile