Pure Hollywood: And Other Stories

Praise for Pure Hollywood

"Think Gatsby with a twist of Didion."--BBC.com

"A book of long and short stories from one of our most distinctive prose stylists, Pure Hollywood captures several recognizable sorts of American landscapes and renders them and the people who wander through them in entirely new light."--New York, "The Best Books of the Year So Far"

"Wherever your literary comfort zone is, the chances are that Christine Schutt is outside it...The stories in this collection evade easy capture - but in reading, isn't the pursuit part of the pleasure?"--The Guardian

"Schutt writes stories that don't have an ounce of melodrama in them--they feel unusually alive and honest--and few writers capture bereavement with Schutt's precision and elegance." -Oprah.com

"A wisp of a book, as rich as it is thin...[Schutt] might well be called a story whisperer. She casts startling, jagged turns of phrase and coaxes stories from an accumulation of details. A sense of menace permeates this book, as accidents, misfortune and death amass from one story to the next. Yet even the darkest themes are rarely weighty with prose so nimble and offhand glints of humor. While Schutt is known as a stylist, she's also a purveyor of suspense this time around. The result is that these moody, often prickly, stories can veer into unexpected territory, keeping us on our toes."--Joan Silverman, Portland Press Herald

"In this book, perhaps the best of her career, she has drawn together her various talents and methodologies into something singular." -3am Magazine

"Schutt's distinct and economic style is on full display throughout this slim collection...Schutt offers surprising reminders of the ghastly and gruesome that are never too far away...Intimate portrayals of darkness told in Schutt's tight and affecting prose."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Nobody writes like Schutt, the National Book Award-finalist author of Florida, and her latest collection is the perfect entry point for readers new to her work. ...Schutt is always in control in this work by an experimental American writer of unparalleled style."--Publishers Weekly

"Schutt's short stories portray flawed characters wrestling with resentment, loneliness, and mortality. ...Schutt's restrained, provoking tales hold detailed impressions at arm's length, as it were, leaving readers to explore life's uneasy truths viewed through an unrelenting lens."--Booklist

"Christine Schutt is already easily among the liveliest stylists of our time, and these eleven stories prove we ain't seen nothing yet. Each is a wonder, pickled in her crystalline idiom and cured under her brutal, astonishing wit."--Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus

"In Pure Hollywood, the genius of Christine Schutt's prose is as mysterious and undeniable as ever, its brilliance all the more remarkable for the darkness it explores, the disturbing realities it illuminates. Her soul-sick characters stalk and haunt your heart every bit as much as Flannery O'Connor's. But even as she unnerves us, Schutt's fiction renders more light, more life, more beauty. Don't be fooled by its size. This book is a masterwork that hits way harder than its weight class, and achieves what great fiction always achieves--it commands us to be aware."--Matt Sumell, author of Making Nice

"Pure Hollywood is pure gold. In tales of rare wit and verve, Christine Schutt leads us into the lives of her perfectly drawn characters--couples young and old, children, skinny men, charming women--and dances on masterful prose through gardens, alcohol (often too much), luxurious homes, and resort vacation spots. Come for the art of her exquisitely weird writing and stay for the human drama. I loved each story--the quick flashes as well as the longer stories. Each one damaged my composure as a reader and fascinated me as a writer. Bravo!"--Ottessa Moshfegh, author of Eileen and Homesick for Another World

Praise for Christine Schutt

"A truly gifted writer."--George Saunders

"Schutt demands our meditation, our intimate consideration, our awe."--Jayne Anne Phillips

"Among the best writers of our time." --Kate Walbert