The Los Angeles Diaries

by James Brown

Book Overview

Plagued by the suicides of both his siblings, heir to alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and economic ruin, novelist James Brown lived a life clouded by addiction, broken promises, and despair. Beautifully written and limned with dark humor, these twelve deeply confessional, interconnected chapters address personal failure, heartbreak, the trials of writing for Hollywood, and the life-shattering events that finally convinced Brown he must "change...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006052152X
• ISBN13: 9780060521523
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Modern American Tragedy

"The Los Angeles Diaries" continue the tragic story begun in the book "Final Performance". dealing with the author, James Brown's ability to cope with the issues of a tumultous childhood, which contributed toward the suicides of his older siblings Barry (a rising TV/movie star of the 1970's) and Marilyn. The first part of the book describes the frustrations of the author (a college professor) at his ill-starred attempts to sell screenplays to Hollywood, and the familial way of handling disappointment with drugs and alcohol. Interspersed throughout are vignettes (told in flashback) of his childhood, some sentimental, some chilling. Brown also relates the difficulty of maintaining a sober facade before college professors and students(well acquainted with the drug scene) who view him cynically. One bright spot is the hilarious narrative of Jame Brown's attempt to mollify his angry wife with a pot-bellied pig as a peace offering. The Machiavellian porker is named Daisy, and Brown's problems burgeon in direct proportion to Daisy's expensive appetite - and expansive girth. Man and pig butt heads; in a contest between man and animal, the animal will win hands down because it has "cuteness" on its side. (The end of the chapter is a riot...) The second half of "The Los Angeles Diaries" is depressing, describing the downward spiral, and subsequent suicides of Brown's brother, Barry, and his sister, Marilyn. By the end of his life, Barry Brown was out of control: impersonating a police officer (a character from a movie) and drinking compulsively. He shot himself to death at age 27. Marilyn Brown attempted to wean herself from alcohol and drugs, but past demons prompted her one night to climb onto the railing of an overpass, then fling herself to her death in the dry riverbed below. The book ends on an optimistic note; while in South Dakota, James Brown resolved to go cold turkey, or die - he made it. But - his two books ("The Los Angeles Diaries" and "Final Performance") are touching memorials by the survivor to the siblings who didn't make it... A new American classic.

A privilege to read.

There's something terribly disturbing about confessional writing. In the hands of a man or woman at the top of their craft, a writer of immense skill and transparency, the experience for the reader can border on the pathological. Honesty without the slightest hint of pretence, particularly from an experienced and intelligent individual, knowing full well that what they tell the world is deeply personal and the honest to goodness truth, is rare. There's always some other agenda. For example, the two most famous confessional pieces in world literature are St. Augustine's Confessions and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Confessions; both author's had an agenda in writing these works, whether for purposes of religious conversion or literary immortality - both achieved their respective ends. Brown's book, however, is different. This is a writer telling a story because this particular story needed to be told. I get the impression that Brown needed to communicate his life in the only form he knew how to as a writer. This is a memoir about writing, addiction, alcoholism, relationships and human responsibility. It is about madness, suicide, compulsion, irony and love. This is a heartbreaking story that leaves the reader with a tiny glimmer of hope. As a true confessional does, it doesn't raise feelings of sympathy or thoughts of self-righteous condescension, but a real empathy, because we've all experienced, in varying degrees, this man's life. Brown's vivid and deceptively rendered prose reminds me of a style of American writing that's all its own. One reads this simple, clear-eyed style of writing and thinks that it would be easy to imitate. Wrong. It appears simple but is awfully difficult to do. Brown's prose adds to the subject matter, making his family obsessions and chemical escapes much harsher, difficult to swallow, but in the end, inspiring and troubling.The L.A. Diaries is a rare memoir because it is what it is and doesn't pretend to be anything else. Brown is a fine writer and this work was a privilege to read.

Unforgettably Honesty

James Brown's memoir, The Los Angeles Diaries, cuts to the quick with its terse but layered descriptions of alcoholism, mental illness, sibling suicide, and, unexpectedly: hope. Without glorifying his addictions or misbehavior--especially towards his wife and three children--Brown's confessional creates a powerful intimacy where none should be.When the book opens during the middle of Brown's usual commute to a screenwriting job in Hollywood, he seems a likeable professional, with morbidly intelligent commentary on his childhood and southern California. Then like a fast-forward edit in a music video, we witness one of Brown's typical three-day binges. He begins with one drink. And promises himself only one. Next comes crank, followed by crime... Without eliciting sympathy, Brown creates a sense of intimacy by simply stating his emotions: "My wife's name is Heidi, and I know I should call her, that I owe her that much, but I don't want to hear it. Her cursing. Her screaming. I know I've done wrong. I know there's no excuse for getting drunk when you're supposed to be home with your family and I wish knowing this would stop me from doing it. I wish that's all it took. That I could will it to happen. But it doesn't work that way, it never has, and in my state of mind, at this particular moment, I can't imagine living without it. The alcohol. The dope. I've been drinking and using since I was nine years old and sometimes I think it's the only thing that gives me any real pleasure."The following eleven autobiographical sketches of The Los Angeles Diaries operate in a similar fashion. Brown's brutally honest narration, modestly describes disturbing situations throughout his life. Watching an author publicly display the pains and problems of his past, in a dignified, without-whining-way shows how people can learn from their mistakes and move forward into a brighter present.

Moving and eloquent

This memoir is as moving and eloquent as any novel of the last twenty years, more so by the fact that the stories are true. I remembering reading many of them originally in the LA Times and other literary journals, but having them back to back compounds the sorrow one feels when reading about a hard life lost and ultimately won again. A must read.

Dark Passage

This harrowing account of James Brown's struggle with alcohol and drugs should be required reading for recovering addicts. In remarkable, startling and beautifully-crafted vignettes, the roots and eventual flourishing of Brown's dependency on booze and chemicals seems as inevitable as the sunrise. But, unlike many of his loved ones, he survived to tell us what it means to 'come to rest at a moment of beginning.' It took a brave man to write this memoir. Are you brave enough to read it?