The Disenchanted tells the tragic story of Manley Halliday, a fabulously
successful writer during the 1920s—a golden figure in a golden age—who by the late 1930s is forgotten by the literary establishment. Based in part on a real-life and ill-fated writing assignment between the author and F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1939, The Disenchanted stands as one of the most compelling evocations of generational disillusion and fallen American stardom.
About the Author :
Budd Schulberg (1914-2009) was born in New York City and grew up in Hollywood, where his father was production chief of Paramount Studios and his mother a successful agent. His many novels include the classic What Makes Sammy Run? and The Harder They Fall, and his screenplay for On the Waterfront earned Schulberg an Academy Award in 1954.
Review :
"[Halliday] will haunt the imagination of all who have the good fortune to be coming, for the first time, to this remarkable novel." --Anthony Burgess
"A living, breathing portrait so vivid you forget who sat for it . . . so valid esthetically that it transcends its corporeal origin and becomes at last a naked, tormented image of that rarely beheld being, a man."--James M. Cain, New York Times
"As Fitzgeraldian as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Halliday is the very essence of 'the lost generation.'"--Library Journal
"More compassionate than his previous books, The Disenchanted constitutes a sad obituary for the Fitzgerald age."--Kirkus, starred review
"As sad a novel as any contemporary novelist has written, sometimes heartbreakingly so . . . a magnificently done piece of work."--San Francisco Chronicle
"Schulberg has a ferocious knowledge of Hollywood, and his satiric portraits of Milgrim, the producer, and Al Harper, the agent, are sharp and amusing; so too is his rendition of Hollywood sweet-talk."--Edward Weeks, The Atlantic
"A brilliant and arresting book. Manley Halliday is a magnificent portrait."--Orville Prescott, The New York Times
"A captivating novel about a doomed project between two writers at opposite ends of their careers. "--Out of the Past blog
