Sam Wasson is the author of many books including the bestselling Fosse and Fifth Avenue, 5 AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman. He lives in Los Angeles.
A New York Times bestseller
"The wondrous thing about Sam Wasson's new book is that it feels
both necessary and inevitable - as if Chinatown couldn't (or
shouldn't) exist without it. Reading The Big Goodbye, something
strange happens: it acquires the historical, dizzying, incestuous
gravitas of the film itself. Wasson has a habit of making vividly
thematic, compassionately revelatory art." - Bruce Wagner, author
of Force Majeure and I Met Someone "Sam Wasson has written a smart,
human and utterly engaging book about an iconic American movie.
With its rich depiction of 1970s Hollywood, The Big Goodbye is
grounded in marvelous reportorial detail and moves with novelistic
urgency." - Julie Salamon, author of The Devil's Candy and An
Innocent Bystander "A fascinating dive into Hollywood"
--Maureen Dowd, New York Times "Chinatown (1974) was a watershed
moment in a colorful era of American filmmaking. Wasson looks past
the myth to tell the true story of its making."
--USA Today, "Winter Reading Guide: This Season's Must-Read Books"
"If you love Chinatown, then you'll love The Big Goodbye--and it's
good reading for any American cinema buff."
--Kirkus Reviews "Inimitable Wasson...argues convincingly that
Chinatown was one of the last great Hollywood films... this
portrait of a neonoir classic will cast a spell over
cinephiles."
--Library Journal, starred review "Wasson...is one of the great
chroniclers of Hollywood lore. And he has truly outdone himself
this time." - The New York Times "Wasson's fascinating and
page-turning description of the talent and ideas behind "Chinatown"
is more than a mere biography of a landmark movie." - Los Angeles
Times "It's impossible not to fall for this love letter to a love
letter that pastes together the often sticky collage of how talent
plus perseverance can equal a classic film." - The Associated Press
"It's the definitive book on Chinatown." - Vanity Fair "[THE BIG
GOODBYE] is as fine an unwrapping of the moviemaking process as
I've read." - Airmail The Big Goodbye is a graceful and worthwhile
elegy to a time dear to those who are lucky enough to remember
it...It will be hard to find a better film book published this
year. - PopMatters.com The Big Goodbye is a fun and insightful read
about the business of Hollywood and the complex, creative process.
- Coachella Valley Weekly An absorbing account of the making of
'Chinatown'...Wasson is a stylish chronicler of Hollywood
politics..."The Big Goodbye" evokes the care that went into every
frame. - The Economist "densely textured, well-researched...
...Film fans will love the behind-the-scenes access to movie town
legends, and buffs will relish the details. If you need to know the
typewriter brand used by Towne, the reason Nicholson was called
"The Weaver" when young, or the designer frock worn by Anjelica
Huston at the Oscars, this is the book for you." - The Sunday Times
"Cultural historian Sam Wasson swims in the muddy making of the
1974 film, the messy lives of its four main players, and the murky
chronicles of L.A.'s studio system and the municipal water wars to
produce a page-turner as suspenseful and spellbinding as the
Raymond Chandler novel from which the book takes its name." - The
AV Club "Hollywood stories are hardly in short supply, but Sam
Wasson can be trusted for some juicy, compelling discoveries. His
latest investigates the making of Chinatown...his innovative
approach: and assembly of mini-biographies of Roman Polanski, Jack
Nicholson, and more, each packed with intriguing revelations." -
Entertainment Weekly "Sam Wasson does a wonderful job with this
book... beautiful [and] meticulously researched." - CBS This
Weekend
"Wasson's book, which is compellingly told and meticulously
researched, tells the story of the origins and making of Chinatown,
and of the studio that produced it, Paramount, which was saved from
collapse by the dynamism of its young head of production, Robert
Evans. " - the Irish Times
"Sam Wasson's forensic account of Hollywood history in transition
offers good reasons to revisit Chinatown's oft-visited depths...his
insights are sharp enough to slit your nose...Wasson crystallizes a
fleeting filmmaking moment at its departure point and leaves us
marvelling anew that is ever came to be." - Total Film "This is an
exceptional film book, far more than the production history of
Chinatown, and so vividly written you will want to seek out the
work of Wasson's previous studies...Wasson writing about Los
Angeles with the same love and diligence Towne brought to the
script...I exclaimed aloud more than once, and even welled up over
the final page. The Big Goodbye is worthy of Chinatown, this
unforgettable movie--high praise indeed. - Sight and Sound "This
scrupulously researched and reported book is about not just a
cinematic masterpiece but the glorious lost Hollywood in which that
movie was born." - The New York Times, 10 Books We Recommend This
Week "In author Sam Wasson's meticulous new book "The Big Goodbye:
Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood," the film historian
("Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.") turns his eye to the minds behind one of
the greatest, bleakest films ever to come out of the studio system.
Delving into the lives of screenwriter Robert Towne, producer
Robert Evans, star Jack Nicholson and director Polanski, he reveals
the inspirations behind the film, as well as the aftershocks it
left. And he makes it clear why "Chinatown's" themes of corruption
and abuse of power have never seemed more painfully topical."-
Salon.com "A big, chewy read, with talented, larger-than-life
rogues stalking its pages -- men with names like Nicholson, Evans,
Towne, Polanski. It evokes nostalgia for a movie that used
nostalgia as a weapon, and it reminds a reader, once again, of how
the works we take for classics came close to never happening." -
Boston Globe "The hottest new book about the movie business...
[it]presents a vivid picture of a key moment in Hollywood history
as well as the gripping odyssey of a writer struggling to convert
his vision into great cinema." - Deadline "There is no greater
treat than Sam Wasson's new book... a completely fascinating
account, filed with intriguing new information of the making of one
of the undeniably great films of the modern era." - LA Times USA
Today "5 Books Not to Miss" and "Must-Read Books of Winter
2020"
Entertainment Weekly "20 Books to Read in February" and "50 Most
Anticipated Books of 2020"
DailyBreak.com "These 10 Books of February are Like a Box of
Premium Chocolates"
Houston Chronicle "Eagerly Anticipated Reads of 2020"
Financial Times "2020 Vision: The Year Ahead in Books"
Kirkus Reviews "New Year's Reading Resolution List"
The Criterion Collection's The Current "November Books Roundup"
Connecticut Post "Sit, stay and Read"
Minneapolis Star-Tribune's "10 Books For At-Home Entertainment
During Quarantine."
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