"West of Eden: An American Place" by Jean Stein

ISBN:  9780812998405 Random House

West of Eden: An American Place by Jean Stein (Random House)

Hollywood will always be a mystical land with a tinge of sadness and, even worse, tragedy.  Not for me, mind you.  I lived in Los Angeles my entire life and only knew the joy of being in this city.  But then again, I'm one of those rare breeds born in Los Angeles and stayed here.  On top of that, I'm not in the entertainment business!  But here, we have the roots of what became a specific type of Los Angeles culture.  Painfully rich, the five families profiled in West of Eden are mostly iconic families and some (at least to me) obscure.   It may be my nature, but I find the unknown always the most interesting.  

Jean Stein, who is very much the queen of the oral history narrative due to her early masterpiece (with George Plimpton) "Edie," has put together a book that is much more personal or, in reality, her backyard.   The book covers five families: The Dohenys, the Selznicks, the Warners, her own family, the Steins (MCA), and the fascinating Jane Garland and her family.   What is interesting about Garland is that she was not only a rich girl from a Hollywood family but also quite insane.  Even more insane was that she had a pair of male nurses: Walter Hopps and Ed Moses.  Hopps was the legendary curator and gallery owner of Ferus, and Moses was a great painter.  Both are very much rooted in the art world history that is Los Angeles.  How these two eccentrics became a caretaker for Garland is a fascinating tale and a fantastic map from fine art to the world of films.  

Each chapter (on each family) has a sense of sadness, and the reader is introduced to a world that, although rich, is a landscape touched by insecurity, madness, eccentricity, and to me, a perfect example of either an era passing or the death of a family's power and presence.  Those who are fascinated by the works of Truman Capote or F. Scott Fitzgerald will find this book fascinating.  There is a fascination with watching the wealthy turn into dust - but the beauty of that era won't be the same anymore.  There will always be the rich, but due to the American promise of riches and happiness - it is usually a bargain that fails in the end.  You get the wealth, but the happiness tends to be unreachable