Sleeping with Strangers

I loved this book. Thomson gives powerful insights into film history in this look into the role of desire in shaping the movies and of the movies in shaping desire.

I have read all of Thomson’s books and look forward to his next. He is the best writer on Hollywood period. I enjoyed his “The Whole Equation” three times. THAT SAID… this is atrocious celebrity tail-sniffing junk that I could not finish. Its thesis is literally Everyone in Hollywood was and is Gay… and if not, they should be… Nonsense of the first water. It is also punctuated with political rants (to a captive audience), a sure sign of a writer in decline. Sorry, David.

look at gayness in film and gays in Hollywood in which the author hops chaotically from personal lives to movies. A mishmash that doesnt have a thesis or perhaps has two many. A book that doesnt know what it wants to be or what it is talking about. Skip it.

I loved this book so much. Thomson once again gives new insights into familiar classics. His essays about Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant are so excellent. At times you think he may be stretching a point or two but then you think about it, and you know he isn’t. His understanding of the studio system is second to none. Thomson has dedicated this book to his great friend Kieran Hickey. If there were a time machine, I would love to go back and join Kieran and Dave at the movies. What a delight that would have been. Dave, thanks for a wonderful read. You’ve done it again.

I have read several books by Thomson and even when I’ve disagreed with a premise or a conclusion I’ve appreciated the knowledge and thought that went into the writing. But this book is really pointless. Or too pointed. It seems to be a compilation of about five hundred rhetorical questions, most of which go unanswered. One example: “Are hope and depression twins in America?” What does that even mean? Meandering ruminations aside, the book doesn’t even live up to its premise. Near the end Thomson writes that his publisher proposed he write a book about gay influence in the movies. Well, that’s not what he’s written. There are numerous declarations/disclaimers such as “So-and-so was undoubtedly straight….” or “I don’t wish to imply that so-and-so was gay….” And then, nothing much. As one critic wrote (I’m paraphrasing), there is no such thing as a “gay sensibility” and its influence is immeasurable. Nailing down or even isolating that sensibility and its influences was clearly beyond Thomson. Much of the book seems to be an excuse to use dirty words and to offer up examples of his adolescent self-abuse as weird illustrations of his arguments. Really, a rather silly book.

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