By DAVID MELTZER (Brandon House; 1970)

This was the last of ten “anti-erotic” novels written for the 1960s fuck book market by the renowned poet David Meltzer (1937-2016).  Those novels, which include the AGENCY trilogy, the BRAIN PLANT teratology, the reality-based horror story THE MARTYR and the dark suburban satire WHACKING OFF, are brimming with sexual content, albeit presented in studiedly unarousing fashion and saddled with troubling socio-political overtones.  Pity the reader who approaches any of Meltzer’s novels expecting the type of shallow eroticism the covers would seem to promise.

…the last of ten “anti-erotic” novels written for the 1960s fuck book market by the renowned poet David Meltzer…

STAR, published by Brandon House (after Meltzer’s favored publisher Essex House went belly-up in 1969), contains a prime example of misleading cover art, portending a saucy show biz satire a la Terry Southern’s BLUE MOVIE (1970).  Meltzer’s novel, however, is a far darker and more idiosyncratic look at the dream factory, drafted in a highly dense and poetic style that requires close concentration on the part of the reader.

Meltzer’s novel, however, is a far darker and more idiosyncratic look,,,

As the title infers, the subject is stardom.  Laura Asp is an aspiring actress being groomed for the big time by the top Hollywood studio USA Pictures.  In the process she’s impregnated by USA’s top “satyr-star” Flynn Donnegal, and births a son who’s christened Alan Zephyr—and immediately taken away from Laura by USA’s corrupt honchos, for reasons that aren’t immediately made clear.

Years later the grown-up Alan decides to track down his birth mother with the help of Musk, a private detective.  This entails a sordid trip through Tijuana to track down a lead who ultimately lures Alan and Musk back to USA Pictures, and a secluded farm in which movie stars are specially bred.  Alan, needless to add, is a product of this system, and that’s not the only sordid secret he learns about himself.

STAR is far from an easy read, but I say it, like nearly all of Meltzer’s novels, is worth the effort required by the reader.  It could admittedly be a bit tighter, particularly in the overly expansive descriptions of Alan and Musk’s depraved exploits in Tijuana (which appear to have been included solely to increase the sexual content), but Meltzer’s unforgettably corrosive depiction of Hollywood’s darker corners remains disturbingly pertinent.

…like nearly all of Meltzer’s novels, is worth the effort required by the reader.