Tony O'Neill (1) (1978–)

This is a set of three loosely interconnected stories about three sets of people, each gathering up speed as they circle around a whirlpool of drugs and despair and desperation.

The most fully fleshed out of these three groups is Genesis, a drug addicted prostitute who dreamed of someday getting out of Reno and Lupita, a one-armed chick with a blazing gun in each hand who somehow shows up on the spot to rescue Genesis. Their back stories are intense and are told well. Together, they follow Dillon's advice in Drugstore Cowboy that the drugs were all there in the pharmacies for the taking and cut a path of blood and gore across the west. Throw in a little bit of Haitian superstition and you've got two avenging angels out to take whatever they can get and who fall in love with each other on the way.

Another pair lives in a seedy Hollywood hotel, Jeffrey goes to AA meetings and his sidekick, tall thin transsexual Rachel, who turns tricks to keep them full of dope.

The final grouping is a French director and his Hollywood connections. Jacque is a fat soul full of self -importance and who is determined to capture on film the gritty underbelly of Hollywood even if he has to sample every drug available and involve every street kid he can find.

Each of these people is on the road to destruction whether rich or poor. There are no limits, no rules, and no end to how far their depravity will stretch.

It is an absorbing gritty look at this world. And O'Neill pulls it off well. The three stories however are not all even. Overall, quite a read. Edgy in a Bukowski way.… (altro)

If you are looking for a book filled with the tender touching moments of the first blush of young love, this may not be what you have in mind. This book is a story about junkies, meth-heads, detox, rehabs, perverted debaucheries, secret sex tapes, strippers, prostitutes, transvestites, gangbangers, movie producers, television therapists, and, of course, the connection to Sharon Tate. But what sets this book apart from O' Neill's earlier tale of junkie desperation Down and Out on Murder Mile is that here O'Neill has channeled his inner Charles Willeford and conveys the gallows humor of a situation in a quick line or two. Despite the subject matter, there's enough distance from it to taste the bitter dark irony in the different scenes. This book is beautifully crafted, well-paced, and hard to put down. And, it's typical noir, because by the time the final curtain falls, no one here gets out alive or whole.… (altro)

Tony O'Neill has gifted us with an amazing book filled with evocative prose. The story is so well told that you really get a keen sense for the narrator's experiences. It is, to be honest, a book about drug addiction, going down a path of self-destruction, trying to kick it through methadone clinics, and such. There's no sugarcoating on this. The narrator tells it like it is. And, before you say, what do we need another book about a fringe musician and his heroin addiction for, you should read it and hear this narrator's voice and the human experience he writes about even though it's a part of the human experience few would ever want to experience.

The book opens with: "The first time I met Susan she overdosed on a combination of Valium and Ecstasy at a friend’s birthday party at a Motel 6 on Hollywood Boulevard. My friends Sal, RP, and I dragged her blue face down to the 5: 00 A.M. Hollywood streets below, and the filthy predawn drizzle on her face somehow brought her round." What a great opening! And then just a few sentences later: ""I married her six months later. I had one broken marriage, one broken musical career, and a burgeoning heroin habit to contend with. I had nowhere I wanted to be, and neither did she. Without a strong pull in any other direction we decided to go down together." It draws you in right from the first page and doesn't let go of you till the end.

This one is dirty, gritty, realistic, and real worth reading.… (altro)