Hollywood - by Connor Coyne (Paperback)

About the Book

"Anxious Ophelia steps off the elevated train in the big city, hoping to start a new life with her summer hookup, far from her dissolving family and all of the traumas of industrial Rockville. Over the course of the next few hours Ophelia will lose her roommate, her money, and eventually, her sense of sanity when she sees a mile-long shark out on the lake, unwitnessed by anyone else, but obviously there, because if it wasn't how did she get so soaked? Ophelia cannot go back to who she was before sighting the beast, and the friends and opportunities she discovers all proceed from what and how she acts on that first, fierce, drunken night"--

Book Synopsis

Hoping to escape the drama back home, twenty-something Ophelia arrives by elevated train in a densely packed neighborhood of a nameless Midwestern city. Jilted by a girlfriend, she walks to a nearby park on the lake - Hollywood Beach - where crowds of unsupervised kids and gay men pack up for the evening and leave her alone. Ophelia walks out on the pier, nervous because she cannot swim. As she shotguns the rest of her beers and reflects on the many catastrophes of her life. On the horizon, a massive shark, miles long, surfaces. As Ophelia stares, the creature dives, sending out huge waves that drench her. And change her life.

Ophelia is drawn into a crowd of artistic post-college kids in the apartment building. And while she finds them charming and clueless, through them, she can forget her past. The most intriguing of her neighbors is another newcomer named Clyde, whose energy is infectious. When they return to the beach, Clyde invites Ophelia to move in with her until they find her a job. Ophelia agrees, and they kiss. But while Ophelia is happy to enjoy everyday life in the City, she soon realizes that Clyde and her other friends are restless and antsy, wanting to move out into the world and try new things.

While the gigantic shark lurks in the lake's waters, Ophelia struggles to navigate life. Will she ever learn to swim?

Review Quotes

"With evocative and true-to-life prose, this story gave me the visceral experience of being young-of that magical time in life when your friends are your family and every future is possible." - Leila Sales, author of This Song Will Save Your Life

"Like a dream that leaves you wanting more, Hollywood pulls you along an atmospheric journey of self-discovery and human connection. Evocative and moving." - Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, author of Where You Linger & Other Stories

"This book beautifully captures the complexity of hope through use of metaphor and enjoyable descriptive storytelling." - Independent Book Review

"A poignant portrait of young people making art and mischief, magic and memories, on Chicago's North Side, the kind of mystical place where even a mile-long shark is not the strangest experience on tap. Hollywood is about found family, and about the brief, precious season in which it flourishes, and it made my heart ache." - William Shunn, author of Inclination and The Accidental Terrorist