Rating: 
Summary: shock and awe
Review: As an avowed feminist, I refused at first to buy this book because I have never been a fan of Joe Eszterhas. At my best friend's insistence, I finally, begrudgingly, picked one up. That was Friday night. On Saturday at 4 a.m. I was still reading. I cancelled my plans on Sunday. Didn't pick up my phone. When I finished it Sunday night, I was sobbing in bed. I was totally unprepared. I never expected to laugh so hard, hold my breath and, finally, have my heart broken. It is an amazing piece of writing and one which I know will stand the test of time. I was shocked at how it affected me and awed that someone could take the circumstances of their live and turn them into what reads like sweeping novel, full of rich characters and events that defy belief. But I do believe. So, Joe Eszterhas, if you're reading this -- you got me. Please write another book. And please -- write another movie. I promise to go this time. You are not who I thought you were.
Rating:
Summary: How do you write a life?
Review: In reading this memoir, I am reminded of the brutally honest autobiography of Elia Kazan. Telling the world who you are, how you see yourself, and acknowledging to the world that "I know how you see me," is one of the most challenging feats in writing. I can imagine it would be a daunting task to edit. Much of Hollywood Animal gives us what we would expect for Eszterhas. It is sensual. It is graphic. It has twists, turns, and shock value. At any given point, you are not sure where your loyalties stand. Do you want to rescue the poor immigrant child from the horrors of the refugee camps, or turn your back on the man who betrays a friend, a wife, a family? Or do you admire the man who risked his career, his entire world to find true love? It's hard to believe that this could all be in one book. If it was a movie, it surely would have been rejected by a studio because, "no one would believe it." But one has to assume that it is true. Yes, there are the juicy details, the gossip and the innuendo. You can't tell a truthful tale about Hollywood without it. despite the book's length, it flows in a way that catapults you into his world...and refuses to let go of you- even when you've put the book down. That's the sign of great writing--but the sign of a brilliant editor. So Mr. Editor, whoever you are...you deserve some serious accolades.
It's a great book whether or not you care about Eszterhas as a person. But I dare you not to care about him by the end.
Rating:
Summary: Fasten Your Seatbelts, It's Going to be a Bumpy Ride
Review: A raw, honest look at the life of one of Hollywood's most powerful screenwriters, Eszterhas' book is a rollercoaster ride through relationships with high profile actors, actresses, directors and producers. I found the most touching pieces to be descriptions of his relationship with his Hungarian mother and father, growing up in Ohio and the shock and bitter disappointment of his father's betrayal. Segments from his second wife Naomi's journal provide the story from another viewpoint, layering on complexity. He bluntly gives his view and wrings every ounce of juice he can get out of life. A great page-turner of a memoir - not for the faint of heart. There's enough gossip, but Eszterhas doesn't let it take over the story - and he is a great story-teller.
Rating:
Summary: Eszterhas Keeps It Real
Review: As a native Clevelander, I loved Ezsterhas' book, "Hollywood Animal" because he kept it real. He tells the truth. Doesn't sugarcoat it. Anyone who has lived a life, can relate to what he reveals of his own. Especially poignant after all his success, is his need to even the score with his high school tormentors at Cathedral Latin to the point where he accepts no upfront money to get his script, "Telling Lies in America" produced. He turns down $750,000 in upfront money for the script because that studio wants to change the protagonist's nationality from a Hungarian Eszterhas to a Latino male. No go for Joe. He wants it clear this is autobiographical. A lengthy book...the complex relationship with his father who turns out to have a checkered World War II past, is a book onto itself. He tells the truth, too, about how little screenwriters make in comparison with the actors who are "stars" which makes no sense since without a brilliant script, it doesn't matter who the star is... Bravo, Joe!
Rating: 
Summary: I always like happy endings
Review: Reading this book can't leave you without a distinct feeling about Joe Eszterhas... mine was that he was honest, funny, passionate, imperfect.
Other people may leave with different feelings, but the beauty of this book is that it has that power to evoke feeling... to make you think about something. While there are bookstores full of cookie-cutter boring books, this one has the ability to be remembered. Eszterhas'controversial personality shows through every page and every line. That's why it exemplifies a memoir, it is truly the author- no censoring, no writing revisionist history- only life as he saw it.
Beyond all of the Hollywood stories (which have their place in this book), is a complicated person with an unusual, sometimes difficult and sometimes wonderful life, who seems to have found his happy ending with a simple, healthy life in a small town with his loving family. That is truly the best part of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Four stories for the price of one
Review: I'm a sucker for the shenanigans that accompany the genesis then acceptance and then production of a film, hollywood style, and this part of Hollywood Animal is a gripping, entertaining read. The films Barton Fink and The Player making worthy accompaniment to this book. There are however, more stories interspersed within, which I wanted out of the way, including the childhood reminscences, the fight with throat cancer and the revelations about daddy. The book has also encouraged me to revisit at least three of his films.
Rating:
Summary: It¿s guys like this that make Hollywood what it is.
Review: This is a big but fast-reading book that should appeal to those who enjoy behind-the-scenes Hollywood. Joe Eszterhas writes well, although you may wonder why he has chosen to detail how self-centered, egotistical, and greedy he is. His "filmography," which I find on the internet, strongly suggests that he's basically a hack screenwriter whose claim to fame centers on making the most lucrative deals for himself regardless of who he has to bulldoze to do it. His sense of self seems invested in being the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood, and he appears most threatened when he suspects that someone else may get more for a screenplay deal than he does. He may think that admitting his deficiencies will expunge his responsibility for them. Or more likely, he's just writing for money again.There's little or nothing in the book to indicate how Mr. Eszterhas became the "Hollywood Animal" that he is. He elides almost all mention of his work as a journalist and leaps from adolescence in Cleveland to his position atop the money pile in Hollywood. He seems genetically programmed to fit right in with our impression that Hollywood is peopled by self-seeking, backbiting, greedy, schlock merchants for whom making the big money deal is the first order of the day. Making movies seems to be only a byproduct of all this deal-making, and it's a tribute to the technicians that they turn out as well as they do.
Rating:
Summary: So much more than I bargained for....
Review: I will be the first to admit that I bought this book because it was touted as "THE MUST READ Hollywood TELL-ALL." Then I started reading it...and at first I decided that this book was probably not going to be one I finished because it was just about Joe and the not-so-nice (animal) man that he is in Hollywood...But then I started to get wrapped up into his childhood, being an young immigrant in the USA and his experiences growing up and an immigrant and a child whose mother suffered from mental illness.
This book is telling, but so much more than that - it is an honest view of a life lived hard and fast, in the not-so-honest world of Hollywood. You will get more information about Hollywood than you ever wanted to know...and throughout this book you will see Joe Eszterhas not as a "Hollywood person" or a writer but as a person- a person who readily admits he made mistakes in his professional and personal life...but a man who stuck up not only for himself but for the written word and his creative process. This book was so much more than I bargained for but I loved it all the same.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Read the Water
Review: Eszterhas is a corpulent, chain-smoking, ill-begotten, beknighted, pothead whose only contribution to literature is the greatest contribution: a memoir that encourages other writers to value themselves in the entertainment industry and get paid what they deserve. Eszterhas got paid four million for a treatment (One Night Stand with Wesley Snipes) that took him four hours to write. 'Nuff Said. Buy the Book.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing, But Interesting
Review: This book exposes a lot of dirt about Hollywood types (and verifies there's not such thing as a "secret" that demented town.) That part was interesting. The depressing stuff was Joe's life. His father and mother suffer in camps until they escape to America, his father justifiably full of hatred for the Communists. And what does Joe do? Like many children of immigrants who escaped these horrors, they come to America and embrace the same liberal politics that their parents escaped from. That was what galled me, or maybe Joe just said he embraces Hollywood liberalism so he can write junk movies.
Yes, junk movies. F.I.S.T- The critics suckered me into watching that other union movie, "Norma Rae". They ain't suckering me into watching another union movie! BASIC INSTINCT- Quite possibly the dirtiest movie ever made. I spent 17 years in law enforcement and am no prude. This movie was mean, everyone was crazy and/or depressed and they were actually able to succeed in making sex dirty. Even in porno, the participants SEEM to like each other. You can take a bath after seeing this one, but how do you wash your brain? SHOWGIRLS- Soooooo bad, it was entertaining. If you treat it as a comedy, it's a riot. Severely bad acting 101. They even had some kind of of "Rocky Horror Show" type live event showing of Showgirls in Reno for everyone to vent at. FLASHDANCE- I really liked this one.Joe didn't write it, he just improved on the story someone else wrote, but took full credit for its being a hit. In all honesty, most of the movies Joe wrote we could all live without. And his lifestyle: Well, Joe worshipped at the altar of hard drugs, the biggest pariah to hit this nation and bring it to its knees. When (not if) Joe's kids become like the loutish and useless (Ozzy) Osbourne children and get on drugs (Dad, Mom, YOU did it, why can't I?) we'll be seeing even more of his public awareness speeches to go along with his anti-smoking campaign. Please take down the Hollywood sign and replace it with the word Hypocrites. Having second wifey kind of hovering around in the wings by being nearly a live-in house guest with first wifey's permission until the inevitable happened (you guessed it) was kind of creepy. I had the bad feeling Naomi was biding her time until she moved in for the kill.
Joe made millions, but I wouldn't trade places with him, because I didn't have to swim in the sewer of Hollywood and lose my health writing dumb movies. It's a long book, I read it in 10-20 page increments each night. Rather too depressing to take in more than that at one shot.
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