Big Red

A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles

Jerome Charyn

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English

No Exit Press
01 December 2022

Fiction & Literature; Historical fiction; Bargains

Narrated by a starry-eyed reporter, Big Red reimagines the tragic career of Rita Hayworth and her indomitable husband, Orson Welles.

Set amidst the noir glamour of Hollywood's Golden Age, Big Red reenvisions the life of one of America's most enduring icons: Gilda herself, Rita Hayworth, whose fiery red hair and hypnotic dancing helped make her the quintessential movie star of the 1940s. With narrator Rusty Redburn - a feisty second-string gossip columnist from Kalamazoo tasked with spying on Hayworth by Columbia movie mogul Harry 'The Janitor' Cohn - as our guide, we follow the meteoric rise and heartrending demise of the actress, encountering her exploitative father, Eduardo; her controlling husband, 'boy genius' Orson Welles; and notorious journalist Louella Parsons, among many others. Mixing his trademark screwball comedy and unerring tragedy, Jerome Charyn, with his 'polymorphous imagination' (Jonathan Lethem) reanimates film classics such as Cover Girl, Gilda, and The Lady from Shanghai. An insightful, tender portrait of a seemingly halcyon age before blockbusters and film franchises, Big Red promises to consume both Hollywood cinephiles and neophytes alike.

By: Jerome Charyn
Imprint: No Exit Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9780857305244
ISBN 10: 0857305247
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 01 December 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jerome Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Maria La Divina; Ravage & Son; Sergeant Salinger; Cesare: A Novel of War-Torn Berlin; In the Shadow of King Saul: Essays on Silence and Song; Jerzy: A Novel; and A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century. Among other honors, his work has been longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and PEN Award for Biography, shortlisted for the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award, and selected as a finalist for the Firecracker Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Reviews for Big Red: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles

Charyn, a veteran novelist, biographer and essayist, subtly evokes F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in telling his saga of star-crossed charismatics through the eyes of an all-seeing peripheral figure... Inspired * Wall Street Journal * Big Red, Charyn's latest, tells the story of the 1940s screen goddess Rita Hayworth and her relationship with the wunderkind director Orson Welles. Charyn has created a memorable narrator in Rusty Redburn, a fiery gossip columnist hired to spy on Hayworth, who changes sides to become her confidant and friend. Through Rusty's eyes we witness the film star's rollercoaster life and the ambivalent allure of celebrity * Times (Best Historical Fiction Book of 2022) * Short review quote in here * CrimeReads * Written with love and affection for its subject, Big Red is an entrancing work of historical fiction that serves as a glimpse into Rita Hayworth's life far beyond her stardom... Vivid, humorous, and perceptive... Charyn's love for film history shines through * Chicago Review of Books * An unforgettable portrait of American film royalty * Apple Books (Best Books of August) *