Eve’s Hollywood

Back of the Book

Journalist, party girl, bookworm, artist, muse: by the time she’d hit thirty, Eve Babitz had played all of these roles. Immortalized as the nude beauty facing down Duchamp and as one of Ed Ruscha’s Five 1965 Girlfriends, Babitz’s first book showed her to be a razor-sharp writer with tales of her own. Eve’s Hollywood is an album of vivid snapshots of Southern California’s haute bohemians, of outrageously beautiful high-school ingenues and enviably tattooed Chicanas, of rock stars sleeping it off at the Chateau Marmont. And though Babitz’s prose might appear careening, she’s in control as she takes us on a ride through an LA of perpetual delight, from a joint serving the perfect taquito, to the corner of La Brea and Sunset where we make eye contact with a roller-skating hooker, to the Watts Towers. This “daughter of the wasteland” is here to show us that her city is no wasteland at all but a glowing landscape of swaying fruit trees and blooming bougainvillea, buffeted by earthquakes and the Santa Ana winds—and every bit as seductive as she is.

Why You Should Read It

Eve Babitz’s LA is a different LA to what we might think of LA now. The people stick to their literary archetypes, through a haze of prominent names (“Once when I testified before a Senate Committee about LSD,” she starts, “Bobby Kennedy asked me how many people I knew smoked marijuana. Brazenly I announced, “Everyone I know smokes marijuana except my grandmother.”) her readers are able to pick out the lay of the land, an empire suffused with sunlight and substances, filled to the brim with talent going nowhere, with strivers, bored Eastern European aristocrats, upper East side ex-pats, those whose names allow that they might live and die on their pool floaties; all with a binding social philosophy—nothing after 3 PM is really better sober, and everybody loves Eve.

Memorable Passage

There are only three things to say about cocaine. One, there is no such thing as enough. Two, it will never be as good as the first time. Three, those first two facts constitute a tragedy of expense in ways that can't be experienced unless you've had cocaine.... Your brain will settle into a puddle around your sinuses and you will die.

About the Author

Eve Babitz, born on May 13, 1943, is a unique and vibrant voice in American literature, known for her distinctive writing style and candid exploration of the Los Angeles cultural scene during the 1960s and 1970s. As a writer, artist, and muse, Babitz's work includes novels such as Eve's Hollywood and Sex and Rage, where she skillfully intertwines fiction with her real-life experiences and observations. Renowned for her wit, humor, and unapologetic portrayal of the hedonistic yet intellectually charged atmosphere of her time, Babitz has carved a niche for herself in the literary world. Her ability to capture the zeitgeist of the era, combined with her keen insights into the human condition and the allure of Southern California's bohemian lifestyle, makes Eve Babitz worth knowing for her contributions to the cultural tapestry of the American West Coast.

Further Reading

“The Sex and Rage of Eve Babitz” by Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker