West of Eden

An American Place

By: Jean Stein

Narrated by: full cast

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

An epic, mesmerizing oral history of Hollywood and Los Angeles from the author of the contemporary classic Edie

Jean Stein transformed the art of oral history in her groundbreaking book Edie: American Girl, an indelible portrait of Andy Warhol “superstar” Edie Sedgwick, which was edited with George Plimpton. Now, in West of Eden, she turns to Los Angeles, the city of her childhood. Stein vividly captures a mythic cast of characters: their ambitions and triumphs as well as their desolation and grief.

These stories illuminate the bold aspirations of five larger-than-life individuals and their families. West of Eden is a work of history both grand in scale and intimate in detail. At the center of each family is a dreamer who finds fortune and strife in Southern California: Edward Doheny, the Wisconsin-born oil tycoon whose corruption destroyed the reputation of a U.S. president and led to his own son’s violent death; Jack Warner, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who together with his brothers founded one of the world’s most iconic film studios; Jane Garland, the troubled daughter of an aspiring actress who could never escape her mother’s schemes; Jennifer Jones, an actress from Oklahoma who won the Academy Award at twenty-five but struggled with despair amid her fame and glamour. Finally, Stein chronicles the ascent of her own father, Jules Stein, an eye doctor born in Indiana who transformed Hollywood with the creation of an unrivaled agency and studio.

In each chapter, Stein paints a portrait of an outsider who pins his or her hopes on the nascent power and promise of Los Angeles. Each individual’s unyielding intensity pushes loved ones, especially children, toward a perilous threshold. West of Eden depicts the city that has projected its own image of America onto the world, in all its idealism and paradox. As she did in Edie, Jean Stein weaves together the personal recollections of an array of individuals to create an astonishing tapestry of a place like no other.

Read by Scott Brick, Paul Boehmer, Tara Sands, Cassandra Campbell, Arthur Morey, Mark Bramhall, Kathleen McInerney, Ann Marie Lee, Fred Sanders, Jorjeana Marie, Keith Szarabajka, Will Damron and Bruce Mann.

©2016 Jean Stein (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“West of Eden is compulsively readable, capturing not just a vibrant part of the history of Los Angeles—that uniquely ‘American Place’ [Jean] Stein refers to in her subtitle—but also the real drama of this town, as reflected in the lives of some of its most powerful players. . . . It’s like being at an insider’s cocktail party where the most delicious gossip about the rich and powerful is being dished by smart people, such as Gore Vidal, Joan Didion, Arthur Miller and Dennis Hopper. The result is a mesmerizing book.”—Los Angeles Times

“Perhaps the most surprising thing that emerges from this riveting book is a glimpse of what seems like deep truth. It’s possible that oral history as Stein practices it . . . is as close as we’re going to come to the real story of anything. . . . In a book that’s a study of the fleeting nature of worldly power, Stein, now eight-two, has grabbed for herself the only kind that lasts: She’s the one left standing, who gets to tell the story.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Jean Stein’s enthralling new oral history, West of Eden: An American Place, brings some of [Los Angeles’s] biggest personalities to life. . . . As she did for Edie Sedgwick in Edie: American Girl, the former Grand Street editor harnesses a gossipy chorus of voices.”—Vogue

A Slice of Hollywood from Various People

Overall, I liked this book. BUT! I'm thinking that it might be one of those books which are structured such that it is best read and not listened to.

The way it's set up is as a series of recollections of various people ranging in time from the 1920s to the '70s and a little beyond. The narrators in this group are superb and I'll probably hunt for other books read by them.

My main problem with this book is that the author has written the recollections by merely announcing a name and letting that person tell a story or an anecdote. There is no bridge of information by Ms. Stein which examines or extrapolates on the person's story which was just told. I'm fairly familiar with Hollywood names and backroom players but some of the people did not ring a memory bell with me. That made it difficult for me to understand their importance genealogically or on other levels and that took some of the verve out of the telling.

I think having accessible online genealogy or "people-tree" that connects the people/personalities so you can literally see their relationships down the years would be very helpful. I know that often when reading a book, I can flip back a page or two to refresh my memory of where a particular person or character fits in.

Overall, though, I liked listening to the anecdotes when a familiar person announced their name and the narrators read their tales of old Hollywood with gusto.

Tales of Old Hollywood

This is a collection of stories told by the children of early Hollywood moguls. At times it is a way too close look at their lifestyles and families. It's all the gossip but none of the substance that made them famous in the first place.
If you like old Hollywood and movies in black-and-white, this will give you some background on what was going on at home while they were being made by the studio.
Not surprisingly the men were all business and really spent very little time with their children or their wives. They were creations of their time and maybe that is what made them famous in the first place. They lived like the stereotypes they created on the screen. So there are plenty of doomed offspring and tipsy wives to go around.
It was mildly interesting and I guess what tales from the Kardashians May sound like 50 years from now...like taking out the old Hollywood trash! A little indulgence and escape

An Engaging Thread in Hollywood History

What did you love best about West of Eden?

Jean Stein's "West of Eden: An American Place," at first seems unimportant... an odd assemblage of oral history snippets curated by a grown up industry child (now 82 years old). By the book's end, however, I was converted, having understood that valuable insights can be gleaned from this unique effort. The author's father was Dr. Jules Stein, founder of MCA Universal, and a Hollywood icon and pioneer in talent representation and television and motion picture production. Jean Stein is perhaps one of the last articulate witnesses to the tail end of an era that started when a handful of immigrants created an industry that has now become one of the largest in the world. For this reason, her perspective illuminates some subtle and perverse undercurrents of the out-sized history of Los Angeles and its showcase enterprise. Some of Stein's inferences: being good at business does not necessarily equate with being good at relationships - your associates, your spouse, your children. Children of the powerful start life with extra baggage and some don't have the coping mechanisms to survive. Some go completely mad, some end it all. Ego and vanity in Hollywood is in a class by itself and the collateral damage is all around. The Angelenos Stein chooses to profile - oil and railroad barons, their mentally disturbed offspring, a legendary actress and a couple of moguls - are all a bit notorious, and could have been plucked from the firmament of Nathanael West's "The Day of the Locust."

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I'm a student of the early days of Hollywood and I've enjoyed reading many important biographies: A. Scott Berg's "Goldwyn," Neal Gabler's "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination," Irene Mayer Selznick's "A Private View," Norman J Zierold's "The Moguls," among others. For the most part, these are exhaustively researched masterpieces. Stein's is not one of them. Rather, through her work, we gain a sense of the ephemeral nature of huge success, even groundbreaking innovation like her father's.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Jules Stein's widow Doris died in 1984, their large, beautiful hilltop Beverly Hills mansion "Misty Mountain," was snapped up by Rupert Murdoch in a hastily brokered deal on the condition that all contents -- furniture, china and silverware, even family mementos and photographs all come with it. Like a hermit crab, Murdoch was able to step into a home and lifestyle that spanned half a century of Hollywood history.

Any additional comments?

This is a book for industry types, Beverly Hills brats with a sense of history and I suppose people like me who are endlessly curious about early Hollywood, love LA, and rue the morphing and consolidation of this gem of an industry to into the corporate machine it has now become.

No Quarter for Hollywood

Wow, from oil to Murdoch who would’ve thought? LA’s a mystery and a story that isn’t quite written yet but West of Eden gives us a clue into maybe how it was planted. This was a very compelling case from a diverse cast of characters. Great job in lining up everyone in a timely fashion too. Always appreciate the interview narrative style of story-telling and nobody does it better than Ms. Stein. I can’t wait til they do an Audible of Edie!

Random recollections

Great narrators reading the random recollections of a large cast of characters. There are some interesting stories to be told, but they got lost in the stream of multiple names and places. There didn't seem to be anything connecting them. So many mentally ill and/or disfuntional people makes it unpleasant and depressing to listen to.

Pitiful excuses for being a patrent

the most boring book ever!. the story was a gross explanation of the excuses of the spoiled children of the era! I felt sorry for their kids because the parents had been treated the same way the kids were treated! WHERE DOES IT STOP? I hated. this sorry excuse!