REACH TO THE STARS

by Calder Willingham ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 8, 1951

A plush hotel in the Texas tropics is the refuge for some dingy sweepings from Hollywood in this tired romping with broad perversions, sagging stars and the patter of fairy feet. Richard Davenport, young would-be author beachcombing from New York, ambles into a bell hop job in the Goncourt Hotel and discovers himself in the midst of a group of diverting grotesques in the persons of the hotel's staff and guests. Among the vegetating decadents are some frustrated, heavy-drinking actresses, three horrid old dowagers, a genteel prostitute, an aging comedian with an obscene vocabulary and approaching insanity, a simple-minded detective and a field of gay boys. Interspersed among the episodes are Richard's sophomoronic musings via letters, and some excerpts from the woolly pages of science fiction, but the understood satire is blunted by the author's pre-teen delight in smoking-room obscenity, and there is a limit to the amount of humor which may be derived from variations in the spelling of anatomical references. Unpleasantly gritty-not for public libraries.

Pub Date: Nov. 8, 1951

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Vanguard

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1951

Categories: FICTION