I know you may still be digesting VJ, but I have a new book coming out next month, and I wanted to let you know about it. (I don’t expect to ever have two books out in the same year again, but the vagaries of publishing schedules are inscrutable sometimes.) It’s called Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind. It’s a biography of the great River Phoenix, who died outside the Viper Room twenty years ago, in the early morning hours of Halloween 1993. It’s a celebration of his life, an investigation into his death, and a cultural history of Hollywood in the ’80s and the ’90s. Rob Sheffield, the awe-inspiring, bestselling author of Turn Around Bright Eyes, described it thus: “Twenty years after his death, River Phoenix remains as enigmatic and elusive as ever. Last Night at the Viper Room tells the heart-shredding story of how this haunted actor left such a big impression in such a brief time.”

I’ll have lots of information for you in coming weeks, both about River Phoenix himself and about the book’s publication. For now, I will leave you with one preliminary review, from Tom on Goodreads, who deemed it “one of the best biographies I’ve read this year… before I knew it, I’d read it in one sitting. It is an addictive book.” I have never had any contact with Tom, but I feel confident in declaring him to be a perspicacious reader and a man with excellent taste.

You can preorder Last Night at the Viper Room from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell’s. Or check in with your local bookstore to make sure they reserve a copy for you.

posted 23 September 2013 in Buy My Stuff and tagged Last Night at the Viper Room, River Phoenix. no comments yet