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BOOK REVIEW: Palo Alto by James Franco
Posted by: Necci – Feb 11, 2011
Palo Alto, by James Franco (Scribner)
James Franco could be the most active entertainer of our time. His participation in film and television is unparalleled. Upon hearing that he intended to release a collection of short stories, I was intrigued. In the past, I had read attempts at literature by the likes of Steve Martin and Ethan Hawke, with mixed results. Franco was a more fascinating addition to this list. From what I could gather, the actor had spent an equal amount of time in a collegiate environment as he had on movie sets. It's going to be difficult to separate the celebrity attributes from his writing, but here we go.
Palo Alto is a short story collection that presents a gallery of disenchanted youth and their subsequent tales of despair. In some instances, the characters are able to get away with their delinquency. In others, the consequences are fully realized and no one gets out unscathed.
As a whole, there were many moments where I desired a bit more from the author. It felt like Franco relied a bit too heavily on language that can’t help but impact the reader. In this respect, the reader has no other choice but to be affected by instances that demand a reaction. I understood the purpose of incorporating pop culture references throughout the text. As a whole though, it felt like a crutch for Franco to create a time and place, acknowledging what was on television or on someone’s stereo as a means of creating an environment. This can be an effective tool, but my main issue is that Franco shows that he is fully capable of creating wonderful passages that reveal much more than they explicitly spell out on several occasions. It’s almost as if he is hurting himself by taking an easy way out with these simple literary devices.
On the positive end of the slope, there are several entries in Palo Alto that are masterfully done. In “American History,” our protagonist makes a futile attempt to impress a girl while belittling a classmate in the midst of a reenactment Civil War trial. He turns to the use of racial slurs as a way to create a rise in his peer as well as get a laugh from the girl of his desires. The repercussions of this vocal outburst results in a confrontation he isn’t remotely prepared to handle. In “I Could Kill Someone,” our narrator describes feelings towards a bully and the fantasies of committing murder to end that treatment. Franco is very capable of embodying the teenage spirit in his characters and this comes out throughout Palo Alto.
With these characters, Franco reminds me of Bret Easton Ellis. They both create universes with their literary works that allow characters from different stories to interact with one another and have their actions affect the world directly and indirectly. The comparison also can’t be avoided in their approach to rampant youth that are obsessed with sex, drugs, and violence. One thing that I ponder while examining their respective works is this: is there a moment when it becomes difficult for a reader to relate to or reflect on the adolescence of characters that exist in California? I don’t think that it gets too unbelievable for there to be comparisons between East Coast and West Coast teenagers. While reflecting on my experiences in the DC area, I couldn’t really picture the realities that both authors set out to demonstrate with their portrayals of Californian youth. This is a small critique of what Palo Alto offers as a literary work, but I couldn’t help but consider this when reading throughout all of the short stories.
I do find that a lot of Palo Alto feels like something I would have encountered in my undergraduate creative writing workshops. This is where I think everyone can agree that this book found publication due to the celebrity status of it’s author. This isn’t terrible. Considering the lingering impact that several of Franco’s short stories were capable of delivering, it cant be denied that he has a bit of talent as an author. Perhaps in future collections or novels that could be released in the coming years, we will all encounter a phenomenal author that can leave his celebrity at home.
By Shannon Cleary
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