'Room 1219: The Life of Fatty Arbuckle, the Mysterious Death of Virginia Rappe, and the Scandal that Changed Hollywood' by Greg Merritt

 

Room 1219: The Life of Fatty Arbuckle, the Mysterious Death of Virginia Rappe, and the Scandal That Changed Hollywood, Greg Merritt (3.5)

For those unaware (or just too young), Fatty Arbuckle was a contemporary of Charlie Chaplin in silent movies who was very famous at the time, but due to a scandal (in Room 1219!) he was one of the first ‘cancelled’ celebrities. Prior, those in Hollywood enjoyed a private life that could be quite different from their on-screen personas. The mystery and trials around the death of the actress Virginia Rappe was one of the first times where the curtain was pulled back and the viewing public let their imaginations run wild. I particularly liked how the author walked through the trials and evidence, described the times before the incident and after and ultimately gave his opinion on what actually happened using only reliable background information. In many ways, the pre-internet celebrity had an easier time, though cancelled is still cancelled.

'Razorblade Tears' by S. A. Cosby

Razorblade Tears, S. A. Cosby (3.0)

I’ll give this story a ‘3’ for keeping my interest, moving quickly and having some memorable quotes (i.e. ‘revenge is just hate in a nicer suit’). Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the constant violence, cartoonish stereotypes and mostly the foreshadowing that made the villain obvious early on. We start with two fathers who come together to determine who killed their married sons. They each represent a stereotype of someone who hates the LGBTQ community (African American previous convict and alcoholic southern white trash) who need to work together on their journey to exact revenge while coming to understand how much they loved their sons. The carnage doled out and ignorant character behavior are constant. The gay bashing is tiring.  I’m surprised how many ‘5’ ratings I see for this book- I can only imagine that many like to see a wrong righted – in that the book can be cathartic.