Books for the News, Fiction

James Franco Has Good Taste

jacket imageJames Franco is a busy man. Between starring in major motion pictures, appearing on daytime soap operas, and guesting in the book trailer for Gary Shteyngart’s new novel, he is also pursuing a literary life; his debut short story collection will be published this fall. For now we’ll recuse ourselves from judging whether Franco’s writing talent is equal to his acting abilities (judge for yourself: PWxyz offers up representative opening lines from the short stories, and Esquire published “Just Before the Black” back in March). But we can equivocally say this: the guy has great taste.
In a May interview, Franco discussed his favorite recent reads, among them our very own title: Richard Stark’s The Hunter. And today, culture blog Flavorwire dutifully assembled this James Franco Reading List, which, of course, contains the classic crime thriller. Well, James, since your proposed seminar at Yale got nixed, you probably have some time on your hands. And if you liked The Hunter, we’ve got plenty more where that came from.
In September 2008, the University of Chicago Press began reissuing Donald E. Westlake‘s Parker novels (which he wrote under the alias Richard Stark), and so far we’ve bought fifteen titles back into print, with more on the way. Franco’s hardly the first celebrity to endorse the Parker novels (Stephen King’s on record as a big fan), but perhaps he’s the dreamiest.
Check out an interview with the author and more about the books.