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A review by pbraue13
Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood by Karina Longworth
5.0
Karina Longworth is the film and old Hollywood historian of our time, her podcast being one of the best and most well-researched out there. Initially, seeing this book on the shelf I was excited and wary because I thought I already knew about most of the starlets on the cover/named in the summary on the back mainly due to Karina Longworth's podcast, "You Must Remember This". Luckily, I was not bored. In fact, Longworth takes the sprinkles of what is given in the podcast and expands them, showing them in an all new context.
Howard Hughes was a piece of work, to say the least, and Longworth's approach to his life through the women in his life and the women whose lives he affected (sometimes in grand spectacular ways as well as really dismal and bad ways) is a genius way to explore this somewhat "mad genius" of his time. Doing so allows you as a new reader and as someone who is approaching this, like I did, with preconceived notions about what they think they know about the famed aviator to see it through a lens of exploitation and misogyny. How being a man (a powerful and wealthy one, at that) in Hollywood allowed Hughes and his controlling/inexcusable behavior (often prompted by his severe OCD and mental illness, nurtured and worsened by his mother in his formative years) was permitted and basically allowed to slide. One can clearly make a connection, drawing a thread, from Hughes to Harvey Weinstein. He went from dating established stars like Katherine Hepburn to controlling and seeking to possess young hopeful starlets with promises of fame and stardom, only to be way too controlling and limiting and ruin their chances at any career in the film industry.
While the book is lengthy (it is exhaustively researched) the writing is great and easy to follow and moves at a smooth pace, allowing you to fall into the writing and be absorbed into the story that the author wishes to disclose. 5/5
Howard Hughes was a piece of work, to say the least, and Longworth's approach to his life through the women in his life and the women whose lives he affected (sometimes in grand spectacular ways as well as really dismal and bad ways) is a genius way to explore this somewhat "mad genius" of his time. Doing so allows you as a new reader and as someone who is approaching this, like I did, with preconceived notions about what they think they know about the famed aviator to see it through a lens of exploitation and misogyny. How being a man (a powerful and wealthy one, at that) in Hollywood allowed Hughes and his controlling/inexcusable behavior (often prompted by his severe OCD and mental illness, nurtured and worsened by his mother in his formative years) was permitted and basically allowed to slide. One can clearly make a connection, drawing a thread, from Hughes to Harvey Weinstein. He went from dating established stars like Katherine Hepburn to controlling and seeking to possess young hopeful starlets with promises of fame and stardom, only to be way too controlling and limiting and ruin their chances at any career in the film industry.
While the book is lengthy (it is exhaustively researched) the writing is great and easy to follow and moves at a smooth pace, allowing you to fall into the writing and be absorbed into the story that the author wishes to disclose. 5/5