Ten Days in the Hills

Taking Boccaccio's Decameron as her model, Jane Smiley gives her version of a Hollywood novel-a sparkling, funny, provocative tale about a group of friends and family gathered for ten transformative days in the Hollywood Hills. It is a joyful and sexy pleasure. On the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards, Max-an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned-and his lover, Elena, are in bed, still groggy from last night's red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, talking about the just-begun war in Iraq. But a house full of guests demands attention: Max's ex-wife "the legendary Zoe Cunningham," a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star; their strong-willed daughter, Isabel; Max's agent, Stoney, a too easy-going version of his now-departed agent father; Paul, Zoe's new lover, an enigmatic (fraudulent, or enlighted?) healer; and a coterie of others. They share their stories of Hollywood past and present; they watch films in Max's luxe screening room; they gossip by the swimming pool, and tussle in the many bedrooms. The tension mounts, sparks fly, and Smiley delivers a virtuosic, unputdownable romp of a novel about love, war, sex, politics, storytelling … and, of course, redemption -that's Hollywood!