Rating: 
Summary: five stars plus
Review: a very well written book. chuckle-out-loud funny, fascinating setting, great story and intelligent message. definitely one of the coolest books of 20th century fiction i have ever read. there are many parallels between the main protagonist - al mannheim and nick carraway of 'the great gatsby'. no wonder f. scott fitzgerald liked this book so much.
Rating:
Summary: Budd Schulberg is a genius
Review: And he's hilarious. Also read: "The Disenchanted." It's out of print but well worth the effort of finding it.
Rating:
Summary: Budd Schulberg is a genius
Review: And he's hilarious. Also read: "The Disenchanted." It's out of print but well worth the effort of finding it.
Rating:
Summary: An extremely amusing read...
Review: And sixty years later, Hollywood functions exactly the same! Awful, suspiciously familiar movies unleashed from the offices of the Mediocre! Set in the 1930's, Schulberg's book helps us imagine the original Shangri-la of Material Dreams -- wonderful, cosmopolitan L.A. and Southern California before the cataclysm.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Hollywood Novel
Review: I highly recommend "What Makes Sammy Run" for anyone who is an aspiring actor or filmmaker. This novel is an interesting look at the early entertainment business. Reading about Sammy Glick as he pursues success in show business is a real eye-opener. And things have not changed all that much these days. The movers and the shakers in the biz still behave in a similar manner. This is an interesting book to learn about what really makes the Entertainment Industry tick. Even though this novel takes place in the 1930s, it is still a great learning tool for today. And it is also a great look into history. This book is a great Hollywood classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book despite an annoying narrator
Review: I liked this book. But I disliked Al Manheim, the narrator of "What Makes Sammy Run?", much more than Sammy Glick, a person Al considers a total sleaze. Al drinks too much, he's puritanical about sex, and uniformly condemning of Sammy, even when Sammy does something -- such as starting a newspaper column about radio (The book is set in the 1930's, folks) that is actually a brillant business move. Also, I found Al's newspaperman pose -- curt, cynical, seen it all -- dated and annoying. Plus, the critical Al was basically passive and stuck in the bar, crying in his beer, while Sammy grew a career. Sammy Glick is definitely an unethical opportunist. But he was often no worse than those he competed with. My advice: Give a guy a break Al, and stop your whining!
Rating: 
Summary: Highly dissapointed
Review: It's the 1930s and Al Manheim thinks Sammy Glick is a ruthless individual. Even as a copy boy, Sammy would run all over everyone he met, including Al. After watching Sammy falsify himself into a successful Hollywood career, Al continues to wonder "What Makes Sammy Run?"Everyone knows a 'Sammy Glick' or two, someone who appears to have no right to his or her successes. This book examines the phenomenon in a clever, often entertaining storyline. And by the end, we have an idea of what keeps him running. One of the greatest 'Hollywood' novels ever written has made a television appearance in the 60s and even was the basis for a horrid little musical. But, the book has yet to make a transfer to the silver screen. (There are rumors that Ben Stiller is interested in changing that.) It comments on Unions, religion, relationships and even plagiarism. There's even some nice material on the human condition: "We only hate the results of people. But people, Henry, aren't just results. They're a process. And to really give them a break we have to judge the process through which they became the result we see when we say So-and-so is a heel." Budd (ON THE WATERFRONT) Schulburg's book includes the entire novel as well as the two short stories that inspired the book. You'll never look at Hollywood the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: THE BEST BOOK OF ALL TIME ! Powerful, Gripping, a tale of the Psychotic Workaholic against the backdrop of Hollywood in the 40's can easily relate to The Street of the 80's and Silicon Valley of the 90's. If you read only one book for the rest of your life....This Is It !
Rating:
Summary: Terrifying and Wonderful
Review: The terrifying and wonderful story of Sammy Glick and his rise from copy boy to Hollywood mogul. The narrator is Glick's colleague and world-weary foil Al Manheim, a newspaperman turned screenwriter who wants to document "a way of life that was paying dividends in America in the first half of the twentieth century." And there were dividends but there was also a price to pay, not all at once, but over time in the loneliness and fear that come from wandering alone through your brightly lit mansion (Manheim calls it Glickfair) waiting for all the newer Sammy Glicks to rise up and take you down. Ever since Nathanael West took the trouble to write _The Day of the Locust_, the contest for Greatest Hollywood Novel of All Time was over. But _Sammy_ is certainly right up there, one of the best.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone who wants to make it big in hollywood
Review: This book has become a bible for climbing the hollywood ladder. Extremely well written, funny and stands the test of time.
| 
