Overview
**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
āA Gen-X This Boyās 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."
āO, The Oprah Magazine
"This moving and profound memoir is for anyone who loves a good redemption story."
āGood Morning America, 20 Books We're Excited for in 2020
"Several years ago, Jollett began writing Hollywood Park, the gripping and brutally honest memoir of his life. Published in the middle of the pandemic, it has gone on to become one of the summerās most celebrated books and a New York Times best seller..."
āLos Angeles Magazine
HOLLYWOOD PARK is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the countryās 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.
We were never young. We were just too afraid of ourselves. No one told us who we were or what we were or where all our parents went. They would arrive like ghosts, visiting us for a morning, an afternoon. They would sit with us or walk around the grounds, to laugh or cry or toss us in the air while we screamed. Then theyād disappear again, for weeks, for months, for years, leaving us alone with our memories and dreams, our questions and confusion. ā¦
So begins Hollywood Park, Mikel Jollettās remarkable memoir. His story opens in an experimental commune in California, which later morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the countryās most infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leaderās 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 cultās āSchool.ā 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.
Hollywood Park is told at first through the limited perspective of a child, and then broadens as Jollett begins to understand the world around him. Although Mikel Jollettās story is filled with heartbreak, it is ultimately an unforgettable portrayal of love at its fiercest and most loyal.
This book title, Hollywood Park (A Memoir) - 9781250621559, ISBN: 9781250621559, by Mikel Jollett, published by Celadon Books (May 4, 2021) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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