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Film critic and historian David Thomson is the author of more than 25 books, including The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, now in its sixth edition. In his latest book, A Sudden Flicker of Light, Thomson proposes that cinema has in fact been a damaging cultural force.
‘The Day of the Locust’ by Nathanael West (1939)
West’s novel fixes on two groups: the freaks and hustler failures who dream of getting into pictures, and the Los Angeles crowd that longs to follow the American dream. The result is a scary portrait of a culture going crazy and a city ready to burn. Buy it here.
‘The Last Tycoon’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1941)
Fitzgerald’s last, unfinished novel is not so good as a narrative, but it offers a superb glimpse of how a brilliant young head of production runs a studio. The character is based on MGM’s Irving Thalberg, who was never impressed by Fitzgerald as a screenwriter. Buy it here.
‘Picture’ by Lillian Ross (1952)
Reportage from the set of The Red Badge of Courage, John Huston’s film adaptation of Stephen Crane’s Civil War novel. Ross, then a young writer at The New Yorker, records all the wild show-off talk and Huston’s battles with the studio. The world had never before heard how the moguls spoke, or thought. Those moguls were horrified when they read themselves in cold print. Buy it here.
‘The Deer Park’ by Norman Mailer (1955)
Still the best novel about love, lust, identity, money, honor, power, producers, and actors. Set against the backdrop of Hollywood and the pleasure ground of Palm Springs, Mailer’s roman à clef follows a war hero who toys with selling his life story to the movies. Buy it here.
‘My Face for the World to See’ by Alfred Hayes (1958)
A jaded screenwriter sees a young woman about to drown herself on the beach. He rescues her and then, against his smarter nature, falls for her; she is a would-be actress who drags him into her bitter melodrama. Hayes was successful with his own screenwriting, but it’s clear from this novel that he had some contempt for the craft. Buy it here.
‘The Golden Hour’ by Matthew Specktor (2025)
Matthew’s father, Fred Specktor, has been a top agent at CAA, the talent agency, since the 1950s. This book is a beautifully written memoir about growing up with the movies, making them, and trying to lead one’s life in the glow spilling from the screen. Buy it here.