In Last Night at the Viper Room, acclaimed author and journalist Gavin Edwards vividly recounts the life and tragic death of acclaimed actor River Phoenix-a teen idol on the fast track to Hollywood royalty who died of a drug overdose in front of West Hollywood's storied club, the Viper Room, at the age of 23.
Last Night at the Viper Room explores the young star's life, including his childhood in Venezuela growing up under the aegis of the cultish Children of God. Putting him at the centre of a new generation of leading men emerging in the early 1990s- including Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage, and Leonardo DiCaprio-Gavin Edwards traces the Academy Award nominee's meteoric rise, couches him in an examination of the 1990s, and illuminates his lasting legacy on Hollywood and popular culture itself.
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It ends outside a Hollywood nightclub called the Viper Room, on a Hollywood sidewalk.- INTRODUCTION
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(It Books, 22 October 2013, e-book, 291 pages, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @OverDriveInc, #POPSUGARReadingChallenge, a book about or set in Hollywood)
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I enjoyed Last Night at the Viper Room a lot. I have vague knowledge of River Phoenix's death and am a fan of his movies so decided to read this out of curiosity. I liked the fact River is humanised in the book. He becomes more than a Hollywood heartthrob who died too soon and more than the lost junkie he was at the end of his life. You learn about River's life before he before he became a star including growing up in the weirdo cult Children of God which I didn't know. This is overall a sad book but humble and humanising.
