No comments about The American Express Pocket Guide to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

5 comments about Loop Group.

1. I think McMurtry should stay out of Hollywood and stick with Texas! It's an interesting aspect of Hollywood life, the loop groups, and I cared enough about the characters to want to finish the book, but I would not buy another McMurty on Hollywood!



2. 'Loop Group' does not measure up to Larry McMurtry's previous works in style and contents. Its central character, Maggie Clary, is a long way from equaling the irrespressibly funny and endearing Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment. The setting of the story (Hollywood) is colorful, yet the road trip from California to Texas is mostly unremarkable, except perhaps for two brief encounters with nutty hichhikers.
   
   Maggie could be described as 'interesting' at best, and would have enjoyed much more fictional possibilities had she had not been undermined by an unsympathetic supporting cast of characters.
   
   Connie, like her best friend, is a 60 year-old spunky amazon who despite her loyalty to Maggie, has an quirky personality that is often bitchy, whiny, and whimsical. Maggie's three daughters, while appearing to be concerned about their mother's depressed state of mind, are in reality selfishly wrapped up in their own shallow pursuits to escape their personal insufficiencies. The members of Primary Loops, Maggie's looping* company, comprises a bunch of drug addicts and other marginal oddballs who fall short of their fictional potential.
   
   The supposedly cathartic roadtrip that Maggie undertakes with Connie across the American Southwest has nothing really engaging in it that you could expect after McMurtry's other novels. It takes place well halfway into the novel and at its culmination, we meet Aunt Cooney, Maggie's 90 year-old aunt, who seems at the outset to be eccentric and generous, but in the end shows her true side as an immensely bitter woman.
   
   The story line takes us from one unlikable character to the next, to draw an uninteresting sketch full of loose ends and irrelevant details. The dialog is awash with vulgarity and the book ends as as it began, with total lack of meaning.
   
   *looping (definition from the Movie Database): The re-recording of dialogue by actors in a sound studio during post-production, usually performed to playback of edited picture in order to match lip movements on screen. It is frequently used to replace production track of poor quality (e.g., due to high levels of background noise) or to change the delivery or inflection of a line. Looping can also be used to insert new lines of dialogue which are conceived during editing, although such lines can only be placed against picture in which the face of the actor speaking is not visible.



3. I borrow the audio book from the library I could not get pass the first chapter the voice was just terrible.



4. How could an author capable of great works put out such drivel? So many reviewers mention that they kept reading this book since it is by McMurtry. My wife and I sat through half of it for the same reason and because it was our only book on CD for our frequent 9 hour drive to Oregon. Save yourself this agony.



5. If nothing else, this book shows what a wonderful and talented writer does when the well goes dry. This was horrible. The characters are all one dimensional, there's nothing particularly interesting about the plot, and who cares what happens to Maggie! The man who wrote Movin On, Terms of Endearment, and Lonesome Dove did not write this crap. Obviously Mr. McMurtry knows that his place in American literature is secure, so now he can throw out this type of drivel. Needless to say, I will not be buying this novel to add to my McMurtry collection.

No comments about Frommer's Los Angeles 2001 (Frommer's Los Angeles, 2001).

5 comments about Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles Alive! (Alive Guides Series).

1. I can't imagine what I can add to this well researched volume of Hollywood tidbits.... This book is fun. It reads especially well with a tub of buttery popcorn and a box of Good & Plenty.

   Tippi Hedren, actress




2. As a former "angeleno" and film enthusiast, I was amazed at the wealth of information contained in this travel book. I recently visited L.A. and stayed at two of the hotels mentioned, and found the descriptions to be right on the mark. I recommend this book not only to those who are planning a vacation in L.A. but to people who live in L.A. and enjoy watching movies and reading about movie stars.



3. As in all Hunter Guides, this hefty paperback is chock full of information - restaurants and hotels, shopping, daytime and nightime activities, even where to see the stars.

   Anton Community Newspapers




4. Here's a 600-page book that's filled to its movie brim, with tons of offbeat things to see and do; bright and breezy in its writing, you'll find facts and other nifty news here about this incredible place called LA and Hollywood that, even if you've lived here all your life (!), you probably never knew existed.

   John Clayton, Travel With a Difference radio show,
   KNX 1070AM




5. The great thing about this book is that it was written by people with an inside view of "The business". Along with the most complete look at Tinsletown they add anecdotes and little known facts that make just reading the book fun.
   And this book covers more that downtown, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It travels north to Santa Barbara and south to Long Beach and Catalina.
   If you're headed for LA this is the book to get. Even as a died-in-the-wool Angeleno, I found this book informative, usefull and fun to read.

No comments about Westward the course of empire;: "out West" and "back East" on the first trip of the "Los Angeles limited".

No comments about Home work: hotels use technology to draw business travel.(Up Front)(Hilton Hotels Corp.): An article from: Los Angeles Business Journal.

No comments about Imagining Transit: Race, Gender, and Transportation Politics in Los Angeles (Travel Writing Across the Disciplines, Vol. 2).

No comments about Los Angeles Ventura 1997-Map.

No comments about La-La Land.(Los Angeles, California): An article from: ColoradoBiz.

2 comments about Southern California: A Multimedia Travel Guide to Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara.

1. Excellent guide full of pictures and tons of things to do and see around Los Angeles. In addition to phone numbers and maps, it also has buttons connecting you directly to web sites of hotels etc. My only gripe: it would be nice to be able to transfer addresses from the CD to my Palm.

   I was recently offered a promotion with transfer to our LA office. This guide, a 'gift' (a Trojan horse?) from our HR, convinced my hesitant family to accept a move across the country. We are using the guide every weekend now to explore the area. The weather beats snow any time (it's January ;)




2. The Gaia Guides' Southern California Multimedia Travel Guide is a waste of time and money. The few restaurants, places to stay, and list of activities can more easily be found in Frommer's or the Mobil Guides. There are no critical messages and I never would have purchased the disc if I knew it was made four years ago in 1999. Now I have to buy another Guide for our coming trip to Santa Barbara.