Hollywood Park
- Author Mikel Jollett
- Narrator Mikel Jollett
- Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
- Run Time 11 hours and 45 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Memoirs, Music, True crime.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price p/Title
- €9.95
- €8.95
- €7.95
- €6.95
- €5.95
Listen to a sample
What to expect
HOLLYWOOD PARK is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country's most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer.
Mikel Jollett was born in an experimental commune in California, which later morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the country's most infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leader's mandate, all children, including Jollett and his older brother, were separated from their parents when they were six months old, and handed over to the cult's 'School'. After spending years in what was essentially an orphanage, Mikel escaped the cult one morning with his mother and older brother. But in many ways, life outside Synanon was even harder and more erratic.
In his raw, poetic and powerful voice, Jollett portrays a childhood filled with abject poverty, trauma, emotional abuse, delinquency and the lure of drugs and alcohol. Raised by a clinically depressed mother, tormented by his angry older brother, subjected to the unpredictability of troubled step-fathers and longing for contact with his father, a former heroin addict and ex-con, Jollett slowly, often painfully, builds a life that leads him to Stanford University and, eventually, to finding his voice as a writer and musician, forming the band The Airborne Toxic Event.
(P)2020 Macmillan Audio
Critics Review
-
Astonishing detail . . . precisely crafted, emotionally-sucker-punching prose.
Daily Telegraph -
A moving and often lyrical account of a fraught, precarious life.
The Sunday Times -
Dangerous, immediate and lyrical from the jump.
Wall Street Journal -
A Gen-X This Boy’s Life . . . Music and his fierce brilliance boost Jollett; a visceral urge to leave his background behind propels him to excel . . . In the end, Jollett shakes off the past to become the captain of his own soul. Hollywood Park is a triumph.
O, The Oprah Magazine -
Jollett has an innate sensitivity and eye for detail. You sense that any novel he’d write would be a good one, a Denis Johnson-esque tale rife with drifters and drugs . . . He recognizes literature as what the critic Kenneth Burke called equipment for living.
Washington Post -
Far from your standard rock autobiography, and no wonder: Jollett was born into a violent cult and overcame a chaotic youth.
New York Times, New & Noteworthy
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.