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Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley (2007, Hardcover)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-101400040612
ISBN-139781400040612
eBay Product ID (ePID)54352451
Product Key Features
Book TitleTen Days in the Hills
Number of Pages464 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicGeneral, Literary
Publication Year2007
GenreFiction
AuthorJane Smiley
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.5 in
Item Weight27.6 Oz
Item Length9.5 in
Item Width6.5 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2006-046579
Reviews"The reigning master of social satire pens a wicked and heartfelt portrait of stars, semicelebrities, and sybarit[es] . . . The beauty of Smiley's garrulous new novel is that it sublimates polemics in a breezy narrative upon which she has liberally bestowed her trademark gifts: deft characterization, uncanny psychological naturalism, polymathic curiosity, and an astonishing ability to inhabit a given milieu as if it's been bred in her very bones (in this case, the Hollywood Hills). Smiley models her tale on Boccaccio'sDecamerononly instead of waiting out the bubonic plague at an Italian villa, her 10 storytellers gather during the opening days of the Iraq war . . . What ensues? Robust, Boccaccian sex. (Jane! Who knew?) Gourmet food. Jokes. Hollywood lore. Imaginary movies. Endless musings about theology, books, art, life. And a Fellini-esque denouement at a Russian robber baron's world-class estate nearby. Are the digressions and bedroom farces merely passing hallucinations, or are they, like iron filings, indiscernibly organizing themselves around some principle whose emergence we await with often euphoric anticipation? You find out: It's worth the trip." Ben Dickinson,Ellemagazine, lead review "Smiley has a gift for entwining eroticism with humanism and sparkling wit to form deliciously complex and slyly satirical fiction. And what opulent realms she loots: academia, horse racing, real estate, and now Hollywood. Here Smiley crafts dialogue every bit as provocative as her detailed sex scenes, and, once again, makes ingenious use of a literary antecedent, this time using as a template Boccaccio'sDecameron. While Boccaccio's group of 10 women and men hope to escape the Black Death by sequestering themselves for 10 days in a villa outside Florence, Smiley quarantines her characters in a mansion high in the hills of Hollywood as the U.S. invades Iraq. Ensconced in luxury if plagued with moral quandaries, they sort out complex family and romantic relationships and argue over the war . . . Each thorny character has an intriguing backstory, feelings run high, and Smiley is regally omnipotent as she advocates for art, objects to war, and considers tricky questions of power and spirit, love and compassion. Archly sexy and brilliant." Donna Seaman,Booklist(starred, boxed review) "Smiley goes Hollywood in this scintillating tale of an extended Decameron-esque L.A. House party. Gathering at the home of washed-up director Max the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards are his Iraq-obsessed girlfriend, Elena; his movie-diva ex-wife Zoe and her yoga-instructor-cum-boyfriend Paul; Max's insufferably PC daughter, Isabel, and his feckless agent, Stoney, who are conducting a secret affair; Zoe's oracular mother, Delphi≠and Max's boyhood friend and Republican irritant Charlie. They watch movies, negotiate their clashing diets and health regimens, indulge in a roundelay of lasciviously detailed sexual encounters and, most of all, talkholding beguiling conversations about movies, Hollywood, relationships, the war and the state of the world. Through it all, they compulsively reimagine daily life as art . . . Smiley delivers a delightful, subtly observant sendup of Tinseltown folly, yet she treats her characters, their concerns with compelling surfaces and their perpetual quest to capture reality through artifice, with warmth and seriousness." Publishers Weekly(starred review), "A tour de force novel that showcases [Smiley's] vast cinematic lore, reminding us why she has earned a reputation as one of the greatest entertainers in American letters. InTen Days in the Hills, Smiley cleverly borrows the narrative set-up of Boccaccio'sDecameronto allow her readers to eavesdrop on a 10-day house party among members of Hollywood's second-string players. . . . [A] marathon of Woody Allen-like conversations . . . and Oscar-worthy dialogue . . . witty enough to keep readers chuckling . . . The thinking person'sBig Chill. . . . Throughout her career Smiley has demonstrated a genius for thrusting readers straight into the heart of her characters' emotions, and this time it feels as if she's adjusted the lens and taken us in for an even closer look. Just how does she make us care so deeply for these people? . . . Readers will be amazed." Andrea Hoag,The AARP Magazine "[Ten Days in the Hillsis full of] merriment, movies and mating, and, in tone, is akin to [Smiley's] lively and humorousMoo. But careful readers might notice, at times, a touch of sadness beneath the mirthful atmosphere. . . . Smiley's rich prose manages to turn a simple kiss into something wondrously poetic. . . [Her] artistic facility with prose and creating scenes is evident. . . . [The] stories and conversations are as colorful as [the characters'] backgrounds. . . . Through flashbacks and dinner party stories and revelations, Smiley peels back the layers that have been buffering the relationships of all gathered during [the] 10 days [over which the novel takes place]. . . . A sharp-edged comedy of manners." Dorman T. Shindler,The Denver Post "A talky, bawdy book that says a lot about Hollywood and even more about the humanness of the 21st century American . . . Smiley has taken a step toward rejecting the traditional novel's story arc and instead moved toward a form that is both old and new. It's all about the story . . . Ultimately, her message here is one of art and its ability to free the artist. Forget the idiots in Washington: Get naked; make art; tell stories. Could there by any saner advice for the age we dwell in?" Joe O'Connell,The Austin Chronicle "Ten Days in the Hillsis a novel about intercourse. Talk and sex. All kinds of sex. But mostly talk . . . [The characters] talk a lot about the Iraq war. They also ricochet off a vast number of other topics . . . The topic that animates the group most, though, aside from sex, is movies . . . Sprinkled throughout the 10 days are some wonderful stories. Deft characterizations abound. Lovely apercus proliferate . . . [Turn] the volume off and enjoy this bookwhich is so concerned with filmas a silent movie. The actions will speak louder than words. Especially actions amorous." Sarah Bird,Chicago Tribune "A spicy, steamy sexalicious slice of life." Kim Baer,The Free Lance-Star "[The characters inTen Days in the Hillsare] a talky, highly sexed, often contentious bunch, and Smiley proves herself their skilled ventriloquist. As her characters struggle with what plagues themhow to hold on to fame and love; what to eather own sly humor, and humanity, emerge. Smiley avoids taking potshots at her indulged and indulgent cast. She even manages to show us they're worth caring for." Jean Nathan,Vogue "[The characters inTen Days in the Hills] tell stories in order to ward off the decline of western democracy. And do these people know how to talk. They talk like people under siege. Every bit o, "Sex, movies, current events and conversation all come together in [this] wickedly enjoyable novel. Although movie culture dominates the book . . . mostly, the characters tell each other stories . . . And as they talk, dine, watch DVDs and go to bed, the subtleties of their relationships and opinions of one another develop with complexity . . . [Ten Days in the Hills] has as much sex as you'll find this side of an adult bookstore . . . Smiley writes of picking upThe Decameronat a terrifying moment and finding [that] its compulsive storytellers offer 'much more than escapist fun . . . it was a reminder of human resiliencenot merely that humans survive, but that as they survive they can't help recreating complex culture, which includes aesthetic, moral, political, sexual and sensual ideas.' That dream of regeneration drives Smiley's romp in the hills as well . . . So come ye patrons of movies and bookstores. Jane Smiley has a treat for you."Marion Winik,Newsday "Jane Smiley takes a taste of Boccaccio and spices [things] up inTen Days in the Hills, a talkative, bawdy, political novel set in Hollywood days after the start of the war in Iraq in 2003. The 10 characters who gather for a house party tell all sorts of stories, and Smiley tells stories about them: gossip and ghost stories, erotica and history, family sagas and shaggy dog stories. She even weaves in versions of five of the Decameron tales. The book also explores the difference between how novels tell stories and how movies do . . . The novel's characters all have some connection to the film industry . . . [All] of them have surprising depth. Movies are everyone's big topic of conversation, although they also circle constantly back to the war . . . . [Her] characters have a lot of sex and talk a lot about it. Some of it's outlandish, even comicbut much of it is warmly romantic."Colette Bancroft,St. Petersburg Times "Ten Days in the Hillsis saturated with sex: loving and satisfying sex, luxuriant and unabashed sex, romantic and silk-sheet sex, middle-aged and earnest sex, explicitly and richly described sex. It's impossible to ignore the sex inTen Days, because it's right there on the fist page. And while it's not on the last page, it's on plenty of pages between . . . . It's impossible to write about true love without writing about sex, [Smiley] concluded . . . Boccaccio's [Decameron, on whichTen Daysis modeled]memorably ribald, irreverent and hilarious, a compendium of coupling, cuckoldry and craftinessreinforced her feelings about the link between love and sex."Michael D. Schaffer,Philadelphia Inquirer "Sprawling, languid, randy . . . Smiley allows us to become Peeping Toms, literary voyeurs, as we eavesdrop on the conversations [of her characters].Ten Days in the Hillsis a novel, and a shimmering one at that, of social observations, archly written and mordantly funny. The dialogue, too, sparkles, even bristles . . . . Smiley's Los Angeles is the L.A. of legend, the glamorous city of movie stars, palm trees and sandy beaches, where everyone is beautiful, or wants to be, or dies trying. She captures, too, the way the people in the movie industry talk about movies . . . In fact, [her characters] talk about movies all the timethe movies that they have seen, the movies that they have worked on, the movies that they would like to make, and they even fantasize about which movie stars should portray them on the, "A talky, bawdy book that says a lot about Hollywood and even more about the humanness of the 21st century American . . . Smiley has taken a step toward rejecting the traditional novel's story arc and instead moved toward a form that is both old and new. It's all about the story . . . Ultimately, her message here is one of art and its ability to free the artist. Forget the idiots in Washington: Get naked; make art; tell stories. Could there by any saner advice for the age we dwell in?"Joe O'Connell,The Austin Chronicle "Ten Days in the Hillsis a novel about intercourse. Talk and sex. All kinds of sex. But mostly talk . . . [The characters] talk a lot about the Iraq war. They also ricochet off a vast number of other topics . . . The topic that animates the group most, though, aside from sex, is movies . . . Sprinkled throughout the 10 days are some wonderful stories. Deft characterizations abound. Lovely apercus proliferate . . . [Turn] the volume off and enjoy this bookwhich is so concerned with filmas a silent movie. The actions will speak louder than words. Especially actions amorous."Sarah Bird,Chicago Tribune "A spicy, steamy sexalicious slice of life." Kim Baer,The Free Lance-Star "[The characters inTen Days in the Hillsare] a talky, highly sexed, often contentious bunch, and Smiley proves herself their skilled ventriloquist. As her characters struggle with what plagues themhow to hold on to fame and love; what to eather own sly humor, and humanity, emerge. Smiley avoids taking potshots at her indulged and indulgent cast. She even manages to show us they're worth caring for."Jean Nathan,Vogue "[The characters inTen Days in the Hills] tell stories in order to ward off the decline of western democracy. And do these people know how to talk. They talk like people under siege. Every bit of it seduces the reader. Just as she takes us inside movies, Smiley takes us inside sex. No writer has ever been more eloquent about [it] either. It's the opposite of pornography, when you get right down to it: not visual, but tactile. At the same time, Ten Days turns out to be one of the most political novels ever written by an American author. You would think that by now Hollywood would be worn out as a subject of satire. Smiley, however, brings something fresh to her brand of parody: characters who feel real."Mary Welp,Louisville Courier-Journal "The latest from Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofA Thousand Acres, follows the exploits of one small enclave in the hills of Hollywood as they react to the Iraq War over the 10 days following the 2003 Oscars . . . Smiley writes with cinematic verve and is nearly without equal when it comes to crystallizing the vagaries of a woman's inner narrativemusing, meandering, and weaving as it does, free and insouciant even in the face of the withering male ego. [Her character] Elena's narrative is shot through with frank talk that results in a fresh, oddly romantic way of approaching sexualityand there is as much action as there is talk."David Cotner,Village Voice "Compulsively readable . . . Smiley describes the frequent sexual encounters among the characters in explicit detail and with gusto." Margaret Quamme,The Columbus Dispatch "Dazzling . . . [It] is [Smiley's] delightfully unpredictable range [as a novelist] that makes her one of our finest contemporary writers . . . Smiley's sex scenes can be lyrical or matter-of-fact, quietly erotic or bawdy, and she can also bring a wickedly satirical edge to the subject . . . ., "[A] modern-dayDecameron. . . [a] Hollywood talkfest [in which] the talk ranges widely but keeps reverting to the Iraq war and the movie business. The acknowledgments at the book's end thank 'every director and commentator on every DVD who bothered to add Special Features,' and there can be no doubt that Smiley, whose previous novels have abundantly shared information on farming, horses, real estate, and medieval Scandinavian settlements in Greenland, has done her DVD research with characteristic thoroughness. Moviesclassic and obscure, real and imaginarypepper the conversation. [At] the end of . . . Smiley's capacious new novel, [the reader] is reluctant to leave . . . . The ten chapters are named for ten successive days . . . . Each chapter is roughly half talk and half sex. The sexual descriptions set a new mark for explicitness in a work of non-pornographic intent. Smiley works in close focus, and from a male as well as female point of view. Physical facts and sensations are not stinted . . . Smiley has put herself on the edge . . . replacing plot and suspense with something freer and more lifelikecasual talk [that creates] a lattice of cross-purpose in which emotions and attractions extend their tendrils . . . The funniest, most outrageous, and most revelatory sex scene occurs [with] a type rather new to American fiction's provinces, a post-Communist Russian, saucily enriching the free world with her native energy and bluntness . . . [her] blithe sluttiness . . . The twists of libido are wound into a cultural exchange, and the anatomy of our inward hollows is illuminated to surprising and comic effect . . . . [InThe Decameron,] Boccaccio conjures up an idyll of civilized society [that is] all delight and abundance and beauty.Ten Days in the Hillsachieves a kindred richness." John Updike,The New Yorker "The reigning master of social satire pens a wicked and heartfelt portrait of stars, semicelebrities, and sybarit[es] . . . The beauty of Smiley's garrulous new novel is that it sublimates polemics in a breezy narrative upon which she has liberally bestowed her trademark gifts: deft characterization, uncanny psychological naturalism, polymathic curiosity, and an astonishing ability to inhabit a given milieu as if it's been bred in her very bones (in this case, the Hollywood Hills). Smiley models her tale on Boccaccio'sDecamerononly instead of waiting out the bubonic plague at an Italian villa, her 10 storytellers gather during the opening days of the Iraq war . . . What ensues? Robust, Boccaccian sex. (Jane! Who knew?) Gourmet food. Jokes. Hollywood lore. Imaginary movies. Endless musings about theology, books, art, life. And a Fellini-esque denouement at a Russian robber baron's world-class estate nearby. Are the digressions and bedroom farces merely passing hallucinations, or are they, like iron filings, indiscernibly organizing themselves around some principle whose emergence we await with often euphoric anticipation? You find out: It's worth the trip." Ben Dickinson,Ellemagazine, lead review "Smiley has a gift for entwining eroticism with humanism and sparkling wit to form deliciously complex and slyly satirical fiction. And what opulent realms she loots: academia, horse racing, real estate, and now Hollywood. Here Smiley crafts dialogue every bit as provocative as her detailed sex scenes, and, once again, makes ingenious use of a literary antecedent, this time using as a template Boccaccio'sDecameron. While Boccaccio's group of 10 women and men hope to escape the Black Death by sequestering themselves for 10 days in a villa outside Florence, Smiley, "Sprawling, languid, randy . . . Smiley allows us to become Peeping Toms, literary voyeurs, as we eavesdrop on the conversations [of her characters].Ten Days in the Hillsis a novel, and a shimmering one at that, of social observations, archly written and mordantly funny. The dialogue, too, sparkles, even bristles . . . . Smiley's Los Angeles is the L.A. of legend, the glamorous city of movie stars, palm trees and sandy beaches, where everyone is beautiful, or wants to be, or dies trying. She captures, too, the way the people in the movie industry talk about movies . . . In fact, [her characters] talk about movies all the timethe movies that they have seen, the movies that they have worked on, the movies that they would like to make, and they even fantasize about which movie stars should portray them on the big screen . . . One of the pleasures of the book, and there are many of them, is listening in on other people's conversations."June Sawyers,San Francisco Chronicle "Seductive . . . Ambitious, subtle and enigmatic . . . A delicate portrait of a Hollywood film director and his oddly assorted friends and family, this story unfolds in the bonds and conflicts of that marvelous cast of characters . . . . Where Boccaccio's lords and ladies hid out from the Black Death's onslaught, Smiley's Hollywood characters act out their tensions and resentments during the opening days of the Iraq war. Smiley is just as successful as the Renaissance master at creating an enthralling mini-world that speaks for a time and place . . . The reader is drawn into caring about the relationships, the dreams and even the fetishes of the characters as their back stories are revealed so cleverly. One theme of the book is the power of film to tell a story. Smiley's prose enables the reader to visualize richly in this cinematic mode. Her craftsmanship is extraordinary and not just art for art's sake. The characters are utterly real, and their interactions explore a world of ideas as well as friendship and farcical sex . . . Despite the pain and loneliness, this vision of human life makes room for possibilities. It even makes room for the greatest possibility of all, love. Smiley, a recent recipient of the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature, is a masterful writer at the top of her game here. Like a classic film, the book stays with you after the screen goes dark."Chris Wiegard,Richmond Times-Dispatch "Soaring . . . Sharp, erotic, artful . . . an AmericanDecameron. As in Boccaccio's 14th-century tales, a little group from a dominant cultural elite decamps to the hills and each guest in turn weaves nightly a story from his or her life . . . Smiley's [characters] are extraordinarily sensitive to their culture, alive to every nuance of beauty and deceit, witty, graceful, desperate to care and preposterously vain. She moves in and out of their heads and stories like the ideal hostess, wearing just the hint of a smile . . . narcissism is never punctured and rarely challenged, simply held up to the light . . . Smiley carefully resists judgment.Ten Days in the Hillshas the recognizable emotional intelligence of the author's masterpieceA Thousand Acres, though the territorial imperatives here are mostly bodily ones. I have never thought of her as a particularly sexual novelist, but here her prose circles light-fingered over the flesh of each of her characters in turn, with an Updikean verve. Some of these couplings are very funny . . . others are as priapic as anything in Boccaccio. Always, like her medieval model, Smiley is playfully obsessed with the moral implications of the pursuit of love . . . [A] typical Smiley sentence [tends] to expand like ripples on the surface of one of David Hockney's Bel-Air swimmin, "Smiley goes Hollywood in this scintillating tale of an extendedDecameron-esque L.A. House party. Gathering at the home of washed-up director Max the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards are his Iraq-obsessed girlfriend, Elena; his movie-diva ex-wife Zoe and her yoga-instructor-cum-boyfriend Paul; Max's insufferably PC daughter, Isabel, and his feckless agent, Stoney, who are conducting a secret affair; Zoe's oracular mother, Delphi≠and Max's boyhood friend and Republican irritant Charlie. They watch movies, negotiate their clashing diets and health regimens, indulge in a roundelay of lasciviously detailed sexual encounters and, most of all, talkholding beguiling conversations about movies, Hollywood, relationships, the war and the state of the world. Through it all, they compulsively reimagine daily life as art . . . Smiley delivers a delightful, subtly observant sendup of Tinseltown folly, yet she treats her characters, their concerns with compelling surfaces and their perpetual quest to capture reality through artifice, with warmth and seriousness." Publishers Weekly(starred review)
Dewey Edition22
Dewey Decimal813/.54
LC Classification NumberPS3569.M39T46 2007
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