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    Stardust
    Stardust
    Stardust
    Audiobook18 hours

    Stardust

    Written by Joseph Kanon

    Narrated by T. Ryder Smith

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The acclaimed, bestselling author of The Good German and Los Alamos returns with his most absorbing and accomplished novel yet—a mesmerizing tale of Hollywood, postwar political intrigue, and one man's determination to learn the truth about his brother's death.

    Hollywood, 1945. Ben Collier has just arrived from war-torn Europe to find his brother has died in mysterious circumstances. Why would a man with a beautiful wife, a successful movie career, and a heroic past choose to kill himself?

    Ben enters the uneasy world beneath the glossy shine of the movie business, where politics and the dream factories collide and Communist witch hunts are rendering the biggest star makers vulnerable. Even here, where the devastation of Europe seems no more real than a painted movie set, the war casts long and dangerous shadows. When Ben learns troubling facts about his own family’s past and embarks on a love affair that never should have happened, he is caught in a web of deception that shakes his moral foundation to its core.

    Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Stardust flawlessly blends fact and fiction into a haunting thriller evoking both the glory days of the movies and the emergence of a dark strain of American political life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 4, 2011
    ISBN9781442343016
    Stardust
    Author

    Joseph Kanon

    Joseph Kanon is the Edgar Award–winning author of Los Alamos and nine other novels: The Prodigal Spy, Alibi, Stardust, Istanbul Passage, Leaving Berlin, Defectors, The Accomplice, The Berlin Exchange, and The Good German, which was made into a major motion picture starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Other awards include the Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers and the Human Writes Award of the Anne Frank Foundation. He lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for Stardust

    3.5/5

    69 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      What an epic story about the McCarthy witchhunt in postwar Hollywood! And so emphatically delivered!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Like many other commenters, I really enjoyed the postwar Hollywood setting and the zippy dialogue. But also like many other commenters, I found it hard to navigate the huge cast of similarly named characters, and the subplots were out of control. It did occur to me that both of those things could have been done in homage to The Maltese Falcon, which I've always thought had similar problems (an unwieldy, labyrinthine plot and a lot of characters who seem largely unnecessary to the story). I kept reading, but mainly for the setting; I actually figured out the Big Reveal as soon as it happened.

      OTOH, I think this would make a GREAT movie with some of the excess plotting trimmed away (again, like The Maltese Falcon... I think; I last saw the movie in 1982, and don't remember it very well).
    • 3/5
      Stardust was a pick for my mystery book club. I had never read Kanon before so I was unfamiliar with his previous books. The book started off well capturing my interest. I liked the introduction of Ben and his meetings of Sol, Paulette, Fay, and Liesl. It was also interesting seeing Ben's brief reunion with Danny and meeting Liesl's family. Then the book lost me for a bit and I struggled to keep at it. I did keep at it, and overall the story was good. I wasn't able to figure out what really happened to Danny before the end because the book had many twists and turns. The character development of Ben was good, and as a reader I cared about Ben and what happened to him. Although the character that did grab my attention was Sol even though he wasn't a major part of the story and plot. I liked the relationship being built between Ben and Sol,and I liked reading about Sol bringing Ben into his world. Sol hadn't had any kids, and since Ben's father wasn't part of his life it was this relationship that stood out in the story for me. Overall the book had a good mystery, but I'm not sure if I will seek out another book by this author.
    • 4/5
      The book reads very well. It is a relatively simple 'who done it' wrapped in an excellent period piece on immediate post-WW2 Hollywood. Kanon as always nails the setting near perfectly. The problems as always are his main characters [he seems to use some version of the same male and female main character in every novel] and the moderately unsatisfactory ending [it works but its a let down]. At least this time the ambiguity of parts of the ending work better than most of his endings. Overall its a fun read if you like the period [the scenes, places, secondary characters are exquisite]. The setting is complex enough that it is probably even fun as a reread. Definitely worth buying.
    • 3/5
      A concept book: famous Germans escape the Nazi witchhunt of the 30s, go to Hollywood, then get hounded once again by postwar commie hunters. An atmosphere book : a Nixonesque rising-star congressman works the tabloid sleazelords to get dirt while we readers eavesdrop on celebrity pairings and parties. The plot keeps intruding on these interesting doings and all-American politicking with a roof-jump/roof-push? suicide/murder?. Too bad that Kanon cannot write a mystery as well as he can come up with the atmospheric concept. I wanna rewrite it for him.
    • 4/5
      This is a very well written mystery story, set in Hollywood just after World War 2. Ben is still in the Army making a documentary about the Nazi death camps. When his brother falls from a building and suffers a fatal injury in California, he travels across the country by train to try to get there before he dies. On the train, he meets and befriends a big-shot movie studio head, who offers him space and support at his studio to complete work on the documentary. His brother dies soon after he arrives in California, and although it is officially reported as an accident, this was fixed by the studio to cover up an apparent suicide. Ben does not accept either explanation, and sets out to investigate his brothers death, and prove that he was murdered. This takes place amid the usual Hollywood intrigue, a community of German emigrés and the start of the Red scare, with an opportunistic Congressman set to eliminate any Communists and their sympathizers from the film industry.I found the book to be extremely well written for the genre, although I was frequently fighting to make sense of conversation that is written in incomplete sentences and with indirect meaning. But, the book still held my interest and the plot was well constructed. I would recommend the book to anyone who likes an intelligent mystery.
    • 4/5
      If a novel can be written in crisp black and white images, with a disillusioned young hero (imagine here a sleepy-eyed young Robert Mitchum), and a cast of tragic, yet stock, characters, Joseph Kannon’s 'Stardust' hits its mark. Kannon’s homage to the film noir both rings with authenticity and provides a compelling read.Ben Collier returns from post-war Germany to discover that his brother Danny has inexplicitly committed suicide, leaving behind a widow, the luscious and lethal Liesel. Why did Danny fall to his death? Did he jump? Was he pushed? Why does no one other than Ben seem to care?'Stardust' is a character study, recounting the lives of those displaced by Hitler who will never feel secure again. Should they return to Germany? And to which Germany, East or West? It is a romance, as Danny and Liesel are strongly drawn to each other (I found it impossible not to see Mitchum and Hedy Lamar facing each other through hazy cigarette smoke). And it is a commentary on American history as the antics of Joseph McCarthy and his followers threaten the German refugees and Hollywood propaganda machine.'Stardust' is a well-written novel; read the book, don’t wait for the movie. Mitchum and his sardonic voice are long gone.
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