Charlie Campbell
Love Among The Chickens
Chicken: Love For Sale on the Streets of Hollywood
By David Henry Sterry
Canongate 213pp £9.99
Brining Down the House
By Ben Mezrich
William Heinemann 257pp £10
THE DARK SIDE of the American Dream has long been associated with Hollywood and Las Vegas. Writers have fallen over themselves to portray the evils gnawing away at America's soul, and these two books provide very different contemporary views.
David Henry Sterry's Chicken is the true account of his arrival in Hollywood as a wide-eyed seventeen-yearold 'tkeshmeat'. Getting away from his imploding family, he enrols in Immaculate Heart College. With nowhere to stay, he finds himself enticed back to a stranger's flat with the promise of food, before being
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
‘At times, Orbital feels almost like a long poem.’
@sam3reynolds on Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, the winner of this year’s @TheBookerPrizes
Sam Reynolds - Islands in the Sky
Sam Reynolds: Islands in the Sky - Orbital by Samantha Harvey
literaryreview.co.uk
Nick Harkaway, John le Carré's son, has gone back to the 1960s with a new novel featuring his father's anti-hero, George Smiley.
But is this the missing link in le Carré’s oeuvre, asks @ddguttenplan, or is there something awry?
D D Guttenplan - Smiley Redux
D D Guttenplan: Smiley Redux - Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway
literaryreview.co.uk
In the nine centuries since his death, El Cid has been presented as a prototypical crusader, a paragon of religious toleration and the progenitor of a united Spain.
David Abulafia goes in search of the real El Cid.
David Abulafia - Legends of the Phantom Rider
David Abulafia: Legends of the Phantom Rider - El Cid: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Mercenary by Nora Berend
literaryreview.co.uk