Hollywood's Eve

Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A.

By: Lili Anolik

Narrated by: Jayme Mattler

The quintessential biography of Eve Babitz (1943-2021), the brilliant chronicler of 1960s and 70s Hollywood hedonism and one of the most original American voices of her time.

“I practically snorted this book, stayed up all night with it. Anolik decodes, ruptures, and ultimately intensifies Eve’s singular irresistible glitz.” —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker

“The Eve Babitz book I’ve been waiting for. What emerges isn’t just a portrait of a writer, but also of Los Angeles: sprawling, melancholic, and glamorous.” —Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter

Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s was the pop culture capital of the world—a movie factory, a music factory, a dream factory. Eve Babitz was the ultimate factory girl, a pure product of LA.

The goddaughter of Igor Stravinsky and a graduate of Hollywood High, Babitz, age twenty, posed for a photograph with French artist Marcel Duchamp in 1963. They were seated at a chess board, deep in a game. She was naked; he was not. The picture, cheesecake with a Dadaist twist, made her an instant icon of art and sex. She spent the rest of the decade on the Sunset Strip, rocking and rolling, and honing her notoriety. There were the album covers she designed: for Buffalo Springfield and the Byrds, to name but a few. There were the men she seduced: Jim Morrison, Ed Ruscha, Harrison Ford, to name but a very few.

Then, at nearly thirty, her It girl days numbered, Babitz was discovered—as a writer—by Joan Didion. She would go on to produce seven books, usually billed as novels or short story collections, always autobiographies and confessionals. Her prose achieved that American ideal: art that stayed loose, maintained its cool; art so sheerly enjoyable as to be mistaken for simple entertainment. Yet somehow the world wasn’t paying attention. Babitz languished.

It was almost twenty years after her last book was published, and only a few years before her death in 2021 that Babitz became a literary star, recognized as not just an essential L.A. writer, but the essential. This late-blooming vogue bloomed, in large part, because of a magazine profile by Lili Anolik, who, in 2010, began obsessively pursuing Babitz, a recluse since burning herself up in a fire in the 90s.

Anolik’s elegant and provocative book is equal parts biography and detective story. It is also on dangerously intimate terms with its subject: artist, writer, muse, and one-woman zeitgeist, Eve Babitz.

“A dazzling, gossip-filled biography of the wayward genius who knew everyone in Seventies LA.” —The Telegraph (UK)

Eve is fascinating.

Lili Anolik captures the spirit of Eve beautifully. It is a great tribute to her life, her work and her entire existence.

Insightfulness of author

A fascinating and insightful tale of an amazing, disturbed, beautiful, adventurous, and brilliant woman who led a life full of creativity and tragedy and as colorful as one could hope. The description of Hollywood life in the 1960s and 70s is so interesting. This is the third book. I’ve read about Eve and I’m looking forward to her short stories and actually anything else about her or that she has written.

interesting

I loved it. I enjoyed reading about her life.
I enjoy reading about the 60s and 70s

Must-read for fans of 60s-70s L.A.

This book riveted me. The descriptions of the mid-century arts scene in Los Angeles (and beyond) were dreamy. The deep dive into the strange world of Eve Babitz was fascinating.

Tedious

I had never heard of her before this book. Sure, there is history here and stories of famous people but there are times when I' wasn't sure who's perspective was being shared. This is a dissection of Eve Babitz, her personality and life. There are contradictions and it gets a bit overly involved, circling the drain, as though the writer is wanting to try to decide how SHE feels about Eve. It gets a bit much. To be honest, I found myself getting pretty sick of this totally self-involved, selfish, morally bankrupt, emotionally vacant and probably mentally ill person. She doesn't seem to care who she hurts or how, including her sister who is lucky to still be alive it sounds like. The author said at one point Eve was "sensitive", what minute was that? She was shocking, controversial, bold, yes, but she was hardly a person you would be able to trust, call friend or seek out for any kind of support or heroic deeds. Sometimes people show you how NOT to be and I think she fits that role. Supposedly she was hot and irresistible, blah, blah, blah but I think I'm missing something in a big way. As you can tell I wasn't impressed by her or her lifestyle but then she wouldn't care how I felt about her. Admittedly she didn't seem to place to high a value on anyone but herself. If that recount is accurate with how "Hollywood" really is, I am really sad for all the messed up, floundering people desperately trying to find happiness in any way possible. The slimy rock has been turned over in this book. It made me feel like taking a shower afterward.