City of blows A novel

Actor, filmmaker, and playwright Nelson debuts with a vivid if heavy-handed character study of men in the film industry. Controlling and abrasive producer Jacob Rosenthal is determined to produce an adaptation of a controversial novel about race. He enlists as his director David Levit, a classically trained actor gunning for his directorial break. Threatening to stymie the project by leveraging David's contractual obligations is Brad Shlansky, a cutthroat but financially desperate producer represented by childhood friend Paul Aiello, an agent with louche proclivities that drive the novel's second central conflict: Paul's drugging and rape of two actresses he represents, and the unraveling that follows. But Nelson is slow to arrive here, instead spending ample time on the formative experiences of the other primary players. There's Jacob's strained relationship with his father, an emotionally distant Marine; David's childhood encounters with antisemitism in West Virginia and class prejudice in college; and the deaths of Brad's parents in his adolescence. The character work up to this point is well done, but Paul's formative years with his alcoholic, abusive father come far too late to complicate the reader's view of him. Though Nelson's critique of Hollywood's toxic culture is nearly sunk by circuitous storytelling, there's more than enough here for a movie. Agent: Bryd Leavell, UTA. (Feb.)

This hard-edged debut looks at the power, savvy, and ugliness that go into making movies. Nelson, an actor and playwright who has also written, directed, and produced films, deploys an insider's knowledge of Hollywood in this story of one director being sought for two productions. In 2019, David Levit gets the call to helm the movie Coal, a prestige project, but he'll have to deal with Jacob Rosenthal, a powerful producer known for his savage tongue and mania for control. He calls to mind the Kevin Spacey character in Swimming With Sharks. The bigger hitch is that Levit is still under contract to a producer named Brad Shlansky on a shoot that closed down for lack of money. Shlansky, a kind of Rosenthal manqué desperate for clout and respect, won't release Levit to work on Coal. The novel's fourth major player is Paul Aiello, a brash agent who knew Shlansky in school and now represents him while juggling a sex life increasingly marked by abusive behavior. Nelson delays the inevitable showdown by providing extensive backstories that help populate the 2019 Hollywood sections with strong characters and motives. He also flags the #MeToo movement with Aiello's extracurriculars and a character closely drawn from Harvey Weinstein while touching on inclusiveness for people of color and women in filmmaking. The book itself is heavily male and White, but Nelson offers a few strong women, including an amusing older lawyer as verbally aggressive as Rosenthal. One of the book's pleasures are the rants, including one from the Weinstein character that begins in classic style: "Do you have any idea what I can do to you?" Nelson is a solid writer whose dialogue is smart, pacy, and pointed. The roman à clef elements may go well beyond Weinstein--Levit seems to reflect a good bit of Nelson himself--but the novel works without such extras. An ambitious, acerbic, entertaining take on the film business. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.