Ten Days in the Hills

Starred review from December 4, 2006
Smiley (A Thousand Acres
) 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–therapist–cum– boyfriend Paul; Max's insufferably PC daughter, Isabel, and his feckless agent, Stoney, who are conducting a secret affair; Zoe's oracular mother, Delphine; and Max's boyhood friend and token 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, talk—holding absurd, meandering, beguiling conversation about movies, Hollywood, relationships, the war and the state of the world. Through it all, they compulsively reimagine daily life as art: Max dreams of making My Lovemaking with Elena
, an all-nude, sexually explicit indie talk-fest inspired by My Dinner with Andre
, but Stoney wants him to remake the Cossack epic Taras Bulba
. Smiley delivers a delightful, subtly observant sendup of Tinseltown folly, yet she treats her characters, their concern with compelling surfaces and their perpetual quest to capture reality through artifice, with warmth and seriousness. In their shallowness, she finds a kind of profundity.

Starred review from February 15, 2007
A diverse group of attractive folks take refuge from tragedy in a hillside villa, where much merriment, bawdiness, and storytelling ensue. Boccaccio's "Decameron"? Yes, at least as transplanted to 21st-century America in this sly and sexy comic novel. The hills of the title are in Hollywood, the tragedy is the Iraq war, and the characters, all connected in some way with the film industry, exemplify the privileged classes of our times. The ill-assorted circle that descends unexpectedly on Max, an aging director, and Elena, his significant other, include Max's grown-up environmentalist daughter, Isabel; Stoney, Max's agent (and Isabel's secret romantic interest); Elena's son, Simon, who is currently skipping college classes to work in a student porn flick; Max's gorgeous movie star ex-wife and her New Age lover; and Charlie, a childhood friend of Max fleeing suburban life. During an eventful week and a half, the group's political tensions, family arguments, anecdotes, gossip, and lovemaking make up a satirical frolic reminiscent of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's "Moo", though here with more emphasis on Eros than academe. Recommended for most fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 10/1/06.]Starr E. Smith, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2006
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's " Decameron." 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. Movie director Max, 58, has found contentment with Elena, 50, a charmingly commonsensical writer of unexpectedly intelligent how-to books, and the novel's ethical center. Then there's Elena's mischievous son; Max's socially conscious daughter; Max's ex, the supremely beautiful singer and actress Zoe; her imperial Jamaican mother; and Zoe's current lover, an annoyingly serene guru. A neighbor tells gossipy tales of old Hollywood, Max's agent pitches an unlikely project, and a friend from Max's boyhood irritates everyone. 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)