It's All True: A Novel of Hollywood

This is a wonderfully amusing satire of life among Hollywood writers, directors, and aspirants of various sorts. The story amounts to little more than Henry Wearie, screenwriter of some repute, living his life among his egotistical and idiosyncratic peers, all of whom are hoping to make the next deal. The deal of course is what keeps them involved. Henry doesn't get many of his scripts turned into films, but in Hollywood, a script deal can produce money for various people all along the way, from idea, to final script, to rewrite, to realization on the screen or interment in a file cabinet, plus residuals. So Henry does all right most of the time. The first half of the book deals with Henry's present situation. The rest of the book consists of nested flashbacks explaining how he got to where we find him at the beginning. It takes a moment to catch on to what's happening.

As a reader of Hollywood fiction and nonfiction this book fills the bill perfectly. The protagonist, writer Henry Wearie, has had minor success but is in a bad trough, both writing and personally. Through reattachment to a former relationship, Henry becomes "hot" or at least "lukewarm" again. The book proceeds to intertwine stories of Henry as it effects his writing, his friends and his love life as he plods his way through the Industry. My one complaint about the book is through the use of flashbacks the book can be confusing as to where you are in time from where the novel starts. This book is funny and sad. If you like to feel emotion in a novel, this will fill the bill. My only mild complaints would be that there are so many characters introduced for short interludes it's difficult to get extremely attached to the characters and the aforementioned confusion about time structure.

As a fellow "recovering screenwriter," I can bear witness to the painful, hilarious authenticity of "It's All True". The passage of David Freeman's protagonist is the archetypal journey of the semi-serious writer turned serious Hollywood hack. It's a story that needed to be told and told well and Freeman has done it with style and heart.

Alternately poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, Freeman's story of a middle-aged screenwriter coming to terms with his life is brilliantly realized on many levels. The folks who run (extremely profitable) screenwriting seminars should give each student "It's All True" as a premium, albeit a cautionary one. This is a stunning achievement.