Palo Alto - Softcover

Palo Alto

'Taut stories . . . Franco has nuance and perfect pitch.' -- Scotsman >> 'Franco...for all his obvious playfulness, is, at bottom, achingly sincere - nowhere more so than in his fiction...All the stories are narrated in the first person and sound fairly similar: Franco's attempt to capture the vocabulary and diction of teenagers is perhaps most awkward when it is most accurate.' -- London Review of Books >> 'A collection of short stories as much as a novel...Palo Alto tracks a loose group of adolescent schoolkids as they come to terms with adulthood and boredom...Franco's skill is not necessarliy in the writing itself but in the way that he normalises, primarily through the deployment of that first-person narrative, his protagonists' slide into activities that are at best antisocial, and yet nevertheless serve as markers, along with the consequent community-service orders, of their emergence into adult society... Palo Alto contains impressive hints that greater things are to come.' -- Art Review>> 'You've got to love James Franco...Palo Alto is a collection of stories set in northern California. They're narrated by a variety of youths who share the same rather blunt storytelling style, are all a bit miserable and frequently get up to no good...There are plenty of startling moments among the stories, and they're always reasonable...This is an intense and arty as the great man himself.' --Heat >> 'Its becomming increasingly clear that James Franco is more than just a pretty face...Palo Alto, named after the California city where Franco grew up, is a flawed but fascinating work that neither rules out nor confirms either possibility. It's certainly a promising start , and the Hollywood hunk has definite talent...Each story is told by a young narrator, and Franco locates the adolescent voice by stripping back his prose and keeping his lyrical flights to a minimum. This plays to his strengths . At its most understated, his writing is fleet and often penetrating...The Hollywood star's foray into the literary world may be met with cynicism in some quarters, but this is a promising debut from a most unlikely source.' -- Observer>> 'Not all these stories of teen angst, set in the Californian suburb of Palo Alto in which actor-writer-artist James Franco grew up, are violent. When they are the shock is cushioned by a deadpan narrative tone that perfectly sums up the pain, boredom and horror of adolescence. Franco proves he is as adept at writing fiction as winning a Golden Globe.' -- Independent>> 'Such volumes of closely related tales are part of an honourable literary tradition and Franco, like his many illustrious predecessors, has successfully conjured a memorable setting into which to place his disturbed and disturbing characters...Palo Alto marks an impressive literary debut but also serves as a geographic warning that here is a destination to be avoided.' -- Daily Express>> 'Each chapter shifts point of view, with only a handful of characters recurring. It's a well-deployed technique - Franco has the knack of being able to write both genders equally well....His tone though is spot on. Told in abrupt, often detached and desensitised first-person, Franco has a great ear for his generation's inarticulateness...It is, however, a solid start from someone who may well become a great American journeyman writer. Here's hoping he perseveres.' -- Empire >> 'Franco's talent...is in creating very believable, authentic depictions of the lives of aimless, alienated, suburban stoners, and evoking their static nature, their apparent inability to conceive any way of life that isn't a boring, solipsistic rut.' --The Herald

'Check out Palo Alto (Faber), a collection of short stories by James Franco ...From tender relationships to delicately recreated female voices, there's much to admire here.' -- Elle Magazine >> 'In yet another string to his bow, screen actor Franco's collection of short stories draws on themes of disaffected youth, angst and ennui in suburban California in a sparse style reminiscent of Bret Eastom Ellis.' -- Harper's Bazaar >> 'Palo Alto is an evocative portrait of aimless, addled teenagers in Franco's north California home town. It seems at first to be a series of bleak, first-person short stories, but builds into a wider mosaic.' --Evening Standard