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Book Review: by Lang Reid
Tinsel Town
 Tinsel
Town is Jim Newport’s fifth novel, with three dealing with the
supernatural, and two, including this one, dealing with the heady
drug-fuelled days of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.
In his introduction of Tinsel Town subtitled Another rotten day in Paradise
(ISBN 978-974-235-344-4, Willat Publishing 2009), author Newport alludes to
his previous book Chasing Jimi, a work of ‘faction’ based of the life of the
late Jimi Hendrix, stating that this new book is of a similar genre.
However, in this book, he has used his literary license on himself, with
recollections from his early days in the film industry. As he states, some
names have been changed, but not all, making the usual disclaimer of “any
resemblance to real characters, living or dead, or to real incidents is
entirely coincidental” rather erroneous. Er, yes, Jim!
Despite the ‘faction’ label, Newport’s description of the very artificial
movie industry is very realistic, and he pulls no punches in describing the
financially irresponsible wasteful use of money in the industry. He quotes
Orson Welles description of a movie studio as “the biggest electric train
set a boy could ever have.” No wonder the folk in the movie industry didn’t
want to meet ‘real life’ outside the studio gates. This was where drugs
always helped.
The novel begins in the late 60’s in California, where no house was locked
and everyone was ready to share a joint. “And if you had one in your pocket,
better yet.”
It was not too long before the characters in the book were dropping acid
(LSD) and Newport introduces the various people with that background, and
then follows them into snorting cocaine. “In every corner (of the movie
lot), every changing room, production trailer, camera car or ‘honey wagon’ –
lines were being snorted.”
Far from being homophobic, the industry was just as homosexual as it
appeared on the surface that it was heterosexual with the attendant groupies
following the stars (with the ‘overflow’ being snapped up by the lower
echelons in the industry). In fact, the book’s central character Joey Morton
is fired from one movie because he was straight.
Once the characters are in place, they are thrown into a detective yarn,
which keeps your interest to the end.
I can honestly say I enjoyed Tinsel Town from first to last pages and was
disappointed it had come to the end. With the first half of the book being
made up of short, racy chapters, it moves along at a fast pace. As it
changes from serial reminiscences of an era which has been consigned to
history to a full-blown thriller, the pace continues, and with so much
action packed on to every page, he does meet his promise of “to spin a tale,
unravel a mystery, and take the reader on an adventure.”
This book could very easily be the basis of a movie, and with Jim Newport
being an old movie man himself, this is no coincidence.
A great tale, which anyone who lived through that era will understand. A
good read at B. 595 RRP, available through Bookazine and all good
bookstores.
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