The Return of the Player

"Truly outrageous and actually endearing." -- Sherryl Connelly "Mr. Tolkin remains Impressive as a scorched-earth social satirist." -- Janet Maslin "The finest novel of Hollywood since The Last Tycoon. I loved It, and when I wasn't laughing aloud, I was rereading it, gasping at the athletics and soul of the thing." -- Jon Robin Baitz "Poor Griffin Mill--once a mover--is down to his last six million dollars, and that isn't the worst of it in Tolkin's sharply observed sequel to The Player. Tolkin's till got a firm hold on Tinseltown's fluttery pulse." "This crisp amorality tale boasts enviable verbal energy, thanks to a hectoring omniscient voice that blends the accents of an Old Testament prophet with those of a favor-currying film industry press agent. . . . This is vivid, nasty fun." "Tolkin's not just a brilliant social satirist of Hollywood and the spiritual cravings of its sharkish millionaires; of chilling upper-echelon marriage, adultery, and child-rearing rites--he's also a rollicking and hilarious writer. Though just as you're admiring the hairpin turns of his sentences or his way with a barb, you realize you've left the comforts of satire and are in the midst of big existential questions and that Tolkin is a pretty serious guy." -- Laura Kipnis "Tolkin's understated style and over-the-top characters continue to amaze." "Mill's antiheroic effort to wring love and meaning from a loveless and meaningless life is heartfelt and cynical." "Tolkin himself is a dying breed: among the last of those in Hollywood who move comfortably from big picture to small project, from screenwriting to directing to novel-writing." -- Matthew Debord "Lively and freshly biting . . . The Return of the Player is classic satire . . . and with its gimiet eye on today's spiritual weariness and cash frenzy, is very much a novel of this time and moment." -- David Walton "By far the widest-ranging novel of Tolkin's four-book career . . . The Return of the Player opens up the lives of the people surrounding Griffin , which creates Tolkin's most fully realized world yet." -- Todd Peterson "How often do you have to pause, reduced to openmouthed wonder, when reading a novel: You can't believe how true it is, can't believe how funny, can't believe the story is headed where it seems to be heading, can't believe someone alive is actually pulling it off? Not often? Maybe never? Well, here it is. Tolkin did it." -- Stephen Gaghan