This book is a fictionalized story of the relationship of Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles. I have no idea how much of the book is true, and I don’t really care because I’m generally not interested in the biographies of movie stars. At times it reads like a filmography and at times it reads like tales from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Those parts of the book were more interesting to me than the Hayworth/Welles soap opera. Hayworth was obviously gorgeous, but also shy, insecure and drunk a lot of the time. She was sort of pitiful in this book, with no control over her life or career and not much personality. Welles was certainly the more creative of the two, but he wasn’t a fully fleshed out character either. I guess I wanted either more old Hollywood glamour and pizzazz or more of the creative process of Welles.

I received a free copies of the ebook and audiobook from the publisher.

Really good book. The plot was well-written and engrossing. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Review posted at BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr288448. Thank you for approving my request.

This book goes off on tangents, making the limited story difficult to follow. Characters are introduced and described in detail, but they have nothing to do with the story. Unfortunate word choices take away from the flow of reading and anecdotes repeat, reminding one of a comic who continues to repeat a joke hoping to get someone to laugh.

Big Red is a reimagining of the life story of Rita Hayward through the eyes of a fictional sexually fluid female would-be gossip reporter, and part time spy for Rita’s boss, Rusty.

In real life Rita had an interesting life. This book reads like a Hollywood scandal sheet version hyping up the sensational parts. It skips the probably boring parts in between.

I think Big Red would have been better if I had already read at least one biography of Rita first. As it was, I spent a lot of time googling to see what was truth and what was likely fiction. Still, with the right background knowledge, this book is an entertaining read. 4 stars!

Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

High praise for this entertaining read and a travel back to the Hollywood days of Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles.
Jerome Charyn’s character Rusty Redburn is smart, quick and sharp witted. The dialogue moves at a pace that had me yearning for every sentence..
Rusty goes from a Hollywood gossip ‘digger’ to an employee of the infamous Harry Cohn. Her new role is as a secretary (actually to ‘spy’) on the beautiful Rita Hayworth. Rusty and Rita get along at first meeting and through Rusty’s eyes we see the ups and downs, glories and pitfalls of the machine that created stars and unforgettable films.
If you are a lover of that special time and place in Hollywoods history and love great writing with detailed, ‘feeling as if you are there’ prose than this is the novel for you.
Highly recommended with thanks to NetGalley, the author and Liveright Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

This old film fan found this exciting, quite like standing on an old movie lot and watching what was going on all around you. What you have is a front-row seat to Rita Hayworth's life as told by Rusty. Rita was a woman that had a horrible upbringing and became a movie megastar. Rita was the perfect "IT" girl. Then she meets the "genius" Orson Welles and it is this love story we get an intimate look into. Rusty not only guides us through this love affair but also through the offices of Harry Cohn and his many underhand dealings.

My favorite part about the whole book was that the text is written in the 1940s. It was a more eloquent time in terms of speech, in my opinion. I think that fans of old movies will very much enjoy this one.

"Narrated by a starry-eyed lesbian, Big Red reimagines the tragic career of Rita Hayworth and her indomitable husband, Orson Welles.

Since he first appeared on the American literary scene, Jerome Charyn has dazzled readers with his "blunt, brilliantly crafted prose" (Washington Post). Yet Charyn, a beloved comedic novelist, also possesses an extraordinary knowledge of Golden Age Hollywood, having taught film history both in the United States and France.

With Big Red, Charyn reimagines the life of one of America's most enduring icons, "Gilda" herself, Rita Hayworth, whose fiery red tresses and hypnotic dancing graced the silver screen over sixty times in her nearly forty-year career. The quintessential movie star of the 1940s, Hayworth has long been objectified as a sex symbol, pin-up girl, and so-called Love Goddess. Here Charyn, channeling the ghosts of a buried past, finally lifts the veils that have long enshrouded Hayworth, evoking her emotional complexity - her passions, her pain, and her inner turmoil.

Charyn’s reimagining of Hayworth's story begins in 1943, in a roomette at the Hollywood Hotel, where narrator Rusty Redburn - an impetuous, second-string gossip columnist from Kalamazoo, Michigan - bides her time between working as a gofer in the publicity offices of Columbia Pictures, volunteering at an indie movie house, and pursuing dalliances with young women on the Sunset Strip. Called upon by the manipulative Columbia movie mogul Harry "The Janitor" Cohn to spy on Hayworth - then, the Dream Factory's most alluring "dame," and Cohn's biggest movie star - Rusty becomes Rita's confidante, accompanying her on a series of madcap adventures with her indomitable husband, the "boy genius" Orson Welles.

But Rusty, an outlaw who can see beyond the prejudices of Hollywood's male-dominated hierarchy, quickly becomes disgusted with the way actresses, and particularly Rita, are exploited by men. As she struggles to balance the dangerous politics of Tinseltown with her desire to protect Rita from ruffians and journalists alike, Rusty has her own encounters - some sweet, some bruising - with characters real and imagined, from Julie Tanaka, an interned Japanese-American friend, to superstars like Clark Gable and Tallulah Bankhead, as well as notorious Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons.

Reanimating such classic films as Gilda and The Lady from Shanghai, Big Red is a bittersweet paean to Hollywood's Golden Age, a tender yet honest portrait of a time before blockbusters and film franchises - one that promises to consume both Hollywood cinephiles and neophytes alike. Lauded for his "polymorphous imagination" (Jonathan Lethem), Charyn once again has created one of the most inventive novels in recent American literature."

Classic Hollywood, reimagined or not, is my jam.

Big Red is such a great story. Well-written and fascinating. Rusty Redburn runs a small movie house and also works the lots for Harry Cohn a big-time guy in Hollywood. There she meets all kinds of stars, some good, some bad. Her favorites Orson Welles and Rita H. hire her as a secretary and she is witness to the crazy inner workings of Welles and crew. From the always helpful valet Shorty to Orson himself, this story is filled with larger-than-life characters and crazy tales. I loved it and found myself reading the Orson parts in his voice. The Errol Flynn yacht stuff was crazy fun. If this is what Hollywood was even a little bit like I want to read more. This author has such a fantastic writing style, I loved it.

I’ve read dozens of books about Orson Welles/Rita Hayworth/Harry Cohn but not a novel involving those three Hollywood icons. And the novel was great. With depth and intelligence concerning the movie business , stardom, and how people live, this is a fantastic book. Charyn brings his estimable writerly skills to this topic in a way that is funny, profane , informative and touching. If you have any interest in this kind of material get this book.

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. Staring with the beautiful cover art and the photo inside of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, Charyn creates a highly entertaining story with a loveable narrator who gives us backstage access to the studio system and Harry Cohn as well as the personal lives of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. Having read biographies on these two stars as well as on the history of Hollywood, Charyn brilliantly weaves in facts as he recreates imagined dialogue and scenes. He is able to capture the essence and personalities of all the characters and this was a book I could not put down. This is a book I plan to keep to read again. I also am going to read other books by Charyn since I enjoyed this one so much. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Liveright (W.W. Norton & Company) for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

First things first: I LOVE classic Hollywood – everything about it. The movies themselves, the histories of the actors and actresses, the whole vibe that it represents. As such, I was thrilled to be granted early access to Big Red. Fortunately for me, the book did not disappoint.

Somehow, Jerome Charyn has managed to write a book that reads exactly like a vintage Hollywood film. It's a touch breathless and vaudevillian in structure, with events and bits of dialogue rushing at you in that perfect in-your-face style. I just loved it. Rita, as in life, is flawless despite her flaws. Orson is damaged in that evil genius way of his. And our fictitious narrator, Rusty, is so perfect that I found myself wishing she really had existed.

I think the ending was perfect, and I'm glad that Charyn didn't follow our characters any further in time. Again, it gave the perfect amount of closure, like a scene from a classic Hollywood film. I do believe that readers of this book would greatly benefit from having watched Rita/Orson films, or just a general knowledge of the histories and names of the time period, but I don't think it is necessary to the understanding or enjoyment of the story.

A lovely read! Thank you to Jerome Charyn, WW Norton & Company, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Orson Welles, one of my favorite directors. Rita Hayworth, immortalized in her role as Gilda. Hollywood’s “Golden. Age”. All these elements are brought together into one of my favorite novels of the year, Big Red, by Jerome Charyn.

Rusty Redburn is our guide to the world of Hollywood in the 40s and 50s. We first meet her working in Harry Cohn’s studio as a digger, someone hired to dig up dirt on other studios, directors and stars. She’s so good at her job that she’s hired by Cohn to become Rita Hayworth’s personal secretary so as to “spy” on her. At the time, Hayworth was living with Orson Welles and was soon to become his second wife. Through Rusty’s eyes, and Charyn’s superb narration, we live the story of Welles’ and Hayworth’s relationship, the creation of her memorable films, and witness her rise and eventual decline of America’s “love goddess”. There’s so much information about both Hayworth and Welles packed into the narrative, especially Hayworth’s childhood and that she was abused by her father. Yet this information is presented so incredibly well in the story that it’s never a distraction.

Another part of the story is the way the studio system of the time functioned. It’s not presented in a good light at all. The studio moguls are misogynistic, and truly despicable. They couldn’t understand Welles’ unorthodox style of moviemaking.

Rusty, our heroine, if you will, is quite memorable. Charyn really brings her to life. Even though she’s a completely fictional character, she’s so seamlessly placed in the novel that I had to keep remembering she’s a fictional character.

I just loved Big Red. I couldn’t put it down, and I highly recommend the book.

My thanks to W. W. Norton and Comapny, and to Netgalley, for an ARC of Big Red.