Wormwood

In this antic insider's tale as seen by Nathan Pitch, a movie studio grunt who managed to preserve his scruples while becoming a head story editor, Hollywood is referred to as ""Wormwood,"" after the volatile ingredient in absinthe, the favored intoxicant of 19th-century Parisian artistes that is newly popular in Hollywood clubs. The novel tracks Pitch's three-year servitude--his arrival in L.A., loss of innocence, addiction and departure--all before he's 30. At first, Pitch lurches from a job with a sadistic agent into marketing focus groups, then lands in script development, finding that everyone he meets is a confirmed liar. He's in the Hollywood whirl among the broken, the stupid and the lunatic, surrendering to the grinding pace of nonstop work that merges with grueling recreational nights, which are all business, too. His eye for story material, the bricks and mortar of the system, makes him known for delivering honest ""coverage."" He is jaded, disillusioned and hooked on absinthe when he reads (""covers"") a hot new novel that he thinks is beautiful. It's too literary for film and he won't recommend it to the studio president, Jumper Sussman. But, surrendering to what is left of his honor, he decides to write glorious coverage on it, knowing as he does that it isn't ""filmic."" A raging auction for the book's film rights ensues, which Sussman wins, to the tune of $1.7 million for the impoverished author and his ecstatic agent--a gift from Pitch. Levien's fiction debut holds out little hope for Hollywood, though outrageous scenes abound as Pitch, beaten but audacious, tries to disrupt the system. The swelling note of despair becomes tiresome, saved only intermittently by the author's energy and acute reportage. (June) FYI: Levien cowrote the screenplay for Rounders.