West of Sunset

I've been recommending this book to everyone since I read it. I feel like I know F. Scott Fitzgerald after reading. It captures who he is in such an intimate and convincing way, it almost feels like a magic trick. This is Fitzgerald in his last years working to pay off debt by writing bad Hollywood screen plays and trying to write his literary comeback--The Last Tycoon. He manages his health problems, tries not to drink, and tries to manage a new relationship with Sheila Graham. This book haunted me, and I'm not sure why or how O'Nan accomplished this.

I love all aspects of Los Angeles from approximately 1911 to around 1950. This doesn’t just include the actors, directors, and studios but also those working behind the scenes who made the movies come to life. This book involves the writers who composed the scenarios (the early name for screenplays) that ended up becoming the films made by the studios. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald was most famous for his novels in the 1920s, but his personal problems (a wife committed to an expensive mental hospital and a daughter to raise) caused him to have to look for work as a writer… show more.