funny description
Posted: June 10, 2021 Filed under: the California Condition 2 CommentsAfter he wrote My Face for the World to See Hayes decided, counterintuitively, to move permanently to Los Angeles, the city he had described as looking ‘as hell might with a good electrician’.
and a classic:
In a novel published in 1968, The End of Me, Hayes’s disillusionment is projected onto the main character, Asher, a failing screenwriter. Asher tells a joke about a man who goes into a butcher’s shop and sees two signs. One reads ‘writers’ brains: 19 cents a pound’; the other: ‘producers’ brains: 79 cents a pound’:
‘Now you are supposed to ask me,’ I said patiently, ‘why producers’ brains cost 79 cents a pound and writers’ brains cost 19 cents a pound?’ … “Well,” the butcher said, “do you know how many producers you have to kill to get a pound of brains?”’
Lucie Elven on Alfred Hayes in LRB.
Helytimes 
Not related to your post–sorry–but I don’t know how else to contact you as I am an old and Zucherberg irritates me. My book club is reading How I Became A Famous Novelist, because I love it so much. Up there with Lincoln in the Bardo. Thanks for such a wonderful, hilarious book. The ending is perfect. Hope the club (nineteen retired female Foreign Service Officers) like it, too. We ripped Stendahl to shreds.
Kathleen, that’s wonderful, I can’t think of a better audience. Hope it’s a hit and that I don’t get “the Stendhal treatment”! Let me know!