City of Blows

By: Tim Blake Nelson

Narrated by: Tim Blake Nelson

Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

It's early 2020, and legendary producer Jacob Rosenthal is eager to make his next film, Coal, adapted from the bestselling novel by the celebrated writer Rex Patterson. The project-which takes on the controversial topic of race in America-is Jacob's envisioned magnum opus, and likely his swan song. He selects David Levit to direct, a major opportunity for the classically trained actor/director whose own films, while garnering critical acclaim, have not resulted in box office success.

But the announcement of David's hiring doesn't sit well with a producer from David's past, Brad Shlansky, who channels the last remaining vestiges of his creativity into a revenge plot that could very well scupper the making of Coal, and ruin the lives of its producer and director in the process.

A sprawling, character-driven depiction of the modern film industry, City of Blows reaches back decades to the formative experiences of each of the novel's central figures to explore what first motivated them to become involved in the quixotic and often venal world of movie-making. Driven by their diverse backgrounds, each must navigate the same huckstering circus that puts films on screen.

©2023 Tim Blake Nelson (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Not enough insights

First off, good for Tim Blake Nelson on turning what could have been a mediocre memoir into a mediocre novel. Props, seriously, it proves his intelligence. Unfortunately there's not enough outside the cliche to make anything about this book memorable. I really gave it a go and it just kept boring me at every turn. It made me wish I had been spending my time with the books his character David Leavitt loves referencing. Plato, Cicero ... hell, I think I would've had more fun attending a Latin class, the details of which Nelson tries to explain early on but with not enough detail to be compelling and not enough practice as a writer to know which stuff to cut out. Maybe if Nelson had condensed this to a novella it mighta moved a pace but it's far too long winded for what it actually has to say. Making movies is about making money. Thanks Tim.