Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror

Because of having read several of his detective novels, and having followed his political blog since its inception, I eagerly awaited the release of Roger Simon's memoir. To say the least, I was not disappointed. It seems to me that, in a sense, a memoir may be the most difficult literary form, as the writer is forced to be brutally honest throughout, not only with himself, but with everyone who has ever known him. While I have no independent, "objective" evidence to determine the honesty of Mr. Simon's account, virtually every word in his memoir convinces me that he is representing himself, and his life, in the most candid and fearless way imaginable. As a physician, trained in residency in the (Freudian) psychoanalytic tradition, I have both strengths and definite limitations in trying to assess what is, after all, the limited sample of a person's "behavior" that one gets reading his memoir... but, allowing for those limitations, I would have to say that "Blacklisting Myself" proves Mr. Simon to be a supremely intelligent, courageous, sober, and penetrating analyst of himself and of our era. All that, and a terrific sense of humor, too! Don't miss this book, even if (especially if!), you think you will be disinclined to accept any of Roger Simon's political judgments. James D. Woolery, MD

Roger Simon would probably not agree to being called "conservative" but you can put only so many words in a review title. He has made a journey from his college days at Dartmouth, when he yearned to be a leftist radical yet was too fearful (and sensible) to accompany a classmate to Cambridge for an LSD party with Timothy Leary. He became a Hollywood screenwriter and novelist with an Academy Award nomination (for Enemies: a Love Story) with three wives and a gay son who became a father last summer via a surrogate mother. That is a full life for anyone. His slow conversion from conventional (for Hollywood) leftist liberal began with the OJ Simpson trial. He and his wife watched the slow motion white Bronco chase, as I did from the bar in the Denali Lodge in Alaska, knowing that only a guilty man would behave that way. They watched the trial, and even got to attend one day when his wife won the daily lottery for seats. Sitting in the courtroom, he watched OJ flirt with his wife from the defendants table. OJ was so confident by that time, and rightly so, that he could revert to his womanizing nature and ignore the spectacle. After the acquittal, Roger began to examine his feelings about civil rights and affirmative action and the impact on the black "community" that allowed those jurors to ignore mountains of evidence. I watched much of the trial from Hanover, New Hampshire as I worked on a graduate degree after I had retired from medicine. I had one of the new satellite dishes and the afternoon session coincided with the end of my day of classes so I watched quite a bit of the trial. My impressions were a bit different from Roger's but his thoughts about the jurors were shared. Then came 9/11 and his realization that his Hollywood friends and acquaintances were being left behind in a new world that they could not understand and refused to accept. At that point he became a neocon, the dreaded bete noir of the Hollywood left and its hangers on. Along the way, he tells an interesting and entertaining story of life in the world of the movies and writing. I am a movie fan, which is why I almost never go to the movies anymore. I spend a few hours a week watching the classics on DVD. I recently got a copy of a charming comedy called The Moon Is Blue, that I saw as a teenager. It was scandalous at the time since the topic was virginity and its loss. What a contrast with the soft core porn that passes for artistic license today. Anyway, this is an interesting and entertaining book about the life of an aging Hollywood writer who has become a member of the "New Media" of blogging. He tells the story of Pajamas Media and its origins. He became a bit of a computer pioneer as one of the first screenwriters to use a laptop ( at the time the size of a steamer trunk) and has continued his pioneering ways with Pajamas TV. The book is small and reads quickly and I recommend it.

Roger L. Simon's writing is not only a refreshing look-back at the politics that informed the Sixties-era Hollywood film industry, but also the direction of American pop culture post-Vietnam and Watergate. His breezy, often humorous style walks us through his interactions with figures as diverse as Barbara Streisand, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Richard Pryor to Abbie Hoffman, Black Panther leader Elaine brown and Timothy Leary. As a former Marxist theoretician-turned-political conservative, I especially appreciate Simon's thoughtful description of his own re-evaluation of his left leanings that eventually shifted significantly to the right. Smart, funny, insightful ... "Blacklisting Myself" is a delight. > Joe R.Hicks

I was expecting to like this book, as I've long been a fan of both Roger Simon's detective fiction and his incisive political/cultural blog. But I was nevertheless surprised at what a terrific read this book proved to be, from start to finish. It's a great memoir of life inside the belly of the movie business, told with the grace, humor, and bite (and telltale stories!) that one would expect from a first-rate writer. But more than that, this is a compelling account of one man's struggle with the dueling angels of liberal political orthodoxy and common sense. It's still on my bedside table; I re-read it every night. I hope that, as a true child of Hollywood, Simon is already at work on the sequel.

I can't think of the last time I was so riveted to a memoir. With great humor and honesty, the author recounts his journey through the shifting landscape of Hollywood from the late sixties to the present. Finally someone who was at the center of the counter culture gives an insightful account of how we ended up where we are. The conclusions Simon draws are profound, yet the book is a joy to read. Who could ask for more?