Tricks of the Trade: A Novel: In Gay Hollywood, It's Not ... (ISBN 1575668130)

Like All the Characters, This Book ...:
Did Ben Tyler ever once re-read his own writing? Did his agent, editor, or publisher ever pick up a single page of manuscript and look it over? Either the answer is no, or else every person involved in the publication of this piece of useless tripe is illiterate. The writing is amateurish and heavy-handed, at best, condescending at worst. Tyler has apparently never heard the old first rule of writing fiction, "show, don't tell". He asserts all sorts of things about his characters' feelings, thoughts, and inner lives without ever bothering to illustrate the same. On the other hand, he loves to fling around lots of big vocabulary words, but has so little idea of how to construct a graceful sentence that the only theme he really communicates is how much smarter he thinks he is than his readers. The grammar is atrocious, and run-on sentences, illegible sentence fragments abound-- not to mention statements like "No matter what he did, Bart just couldn't impress Shari no matter what he did." See what a single re-reading and some simple editing might have accomplished? In addition to the Freshman English problems, the underlying content is pointless. These characters are both unlikeable and uninteresting, and if any novel has ever featured such a drippy, shallow protagonist, I'd like to know what it is. Even the purported draw of this novel, the supposed gossip and revelations into Hollywood, turns out to be a hollow promise. There's not a single rumor here that hasn't already been trumpeted on the covers of every tabloid in the nation, not a single innuendo too titillating for People Magazine, and not even one new thought about the nefarious ways of the movie biz-- Mr. Tyler has actually achieved something quite considerable by managing to make this most salacious, manipulative slice of our society utterly boring. Unbelievable, poorly researched at best, and containing barely a single readable paragraph. Please spend more than a weekend on your next work, Ben.

The Real Trick is getting through this book!:
This is one of the worst books I have ever read. This was my first exposure to Ben Tyler, and it will be my last. Poorly written and poorly edited. Save your time.

Making It in Hollywood!:
Novels about making it in Hollywood are nothing new. Hollywood has a reputation where everyone uses everyone to get what they want as fast as they can. "Tricks of the Trade" is such a novel but there's a lot more plot here, and this book is a fast, easy read full of vivid characters who know a little about back stabbing and getting their own way. There's Bart Cain, the main character, who is a publicity writer for Sterling Studios; Shari Draper, Bart's homophobic boss; Rod Dominguez, the hot Latino stud who hustles by night and writes so called brilliant scripts by day; and Jim Fallon, the All-American sit-com star whose career is in the dumps. Bart meets Rod in a chat room, and the two get together for some action. Soon Bart is instantly hooked on Rod, and after Rod talks Bart into getting his script read by the studio, he drops him like a ton of lead. Into the picture steps, Jim Fallon, who thinks Rod's script is his answer to his sagging career. This story, with more twists than you can imagine, leaves you exhausted by the end of the book, trying to keep up with it all. The fun is in seeing just how far each of these characters will go to get ahead. You will find yourself racing toward the finish line to see who comes out the winner in this fun, but busy novel. It's an enjoyable read that's well worth the time. Joe Hanssen

What a Great Read:
I just finished reading this book and I gotta say, I loved every single bit of it. The Characters were very well developed. I felt as though I was right there in the mix feeling what the characters went through and salavating over the character of Rod. I couldn't help but fall in love with Bart. I also found myself indentifying at times with what these men went through. I give this book a huge thumbs up. I had a hard time putting it down.

A story that tried:
I think the idea of this story was worth telling, but that was the problem. It was told, not shown. I kept waiting for some action. All I read was narrative. It was as if some person was sitting there telling you about it, but you never watched it on the screen. The ending seemed improbable. I wanted some kind of revenge but the 'epilogue' left me angry. Wasn't that the point of the book? I wish this one could be rewritten with more of the action shown. It wouldn't have been a bad read then. It won't stop me from picking up another one of his books.