Hollywood Park

Astonishing detail … precisely crafted, emotionally-sucker-punching prose. * Daily Telegraph *A moving and often lyrical account of a fraught, precarious life. * The Sunday Times *Dangerous, immediate and lyrical from the jump. * Wall Street Journal *A Gen-X This Boy’s Life … Music and his fierce brilliance boost Jollett; a visceral urge to leave his background behind propels him to excel … In the end, Jollett shakes off the past to become the captain of his own soul. Hollywood Park is a triumph. * O, The Oprah Magazine *Jollett has an innate sensitivity and eye for detail. You sense that any novel he’d write would be a good one, a Denis Johnson-esque tale rife with drifters and drugs … He recognizes literature as what the critic Kenneth Burke called equipment for living. * Washington Post *Far from your standard rock autobiography, and no wonder: Jollett was born into a violent cult and overcame a chaotic youth. * New York Times, New & Noteworthy *An absorbing, emotional read * Salon *Remarkable * Huffington Post, 10 of the Most Anticipated Book Releases of May *Deals with addiction, religious fanaticism, and abuse. But there’s also loyalty, raw love, and a poetic voice that prevails throughout the horror. * Good Housekeeping *Fascinating * New York Post *…an exquisitely deep and moving tale of transformation and the search for love. * People Magazine, Book of the Week *Steeped in tenderness and cruelty, Hollywood Park is a testament to the power of imagination and storytelling in deconstructing trauma. Jollett paints an achingly honest portrait of his family in glittering, urgent prose. I felt their darkness and their poetry in my bones. * Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater *Jollett was raised from childhood in a cult, brought up under the leaders of Synanon. With stunning clarity, he tells of his mother’s escapes and the subsequent trials his family endured. * Newsweek 40 Must-Read Fiction And Nonfiction Books To Savor This Spring *Hollywood Park is amazing. Mikel Jollett takes the shards of a broken childhood - imagine a life where escaping from a violent cult is somehow not a path to safety - and makes it a universal story of the struggle to find connection in a brutally beautiful world. His story zigs where you think it’s going to zag, and even the most irredeemable characters somehow surprise us with their tenacity. It’s a complicated story with a simple payoff: this is how the light gets in, this is how an artist gets made. * Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil *Engaging and heartbreaking. A good choice for fans of memoirs about overcoming dysfunctional childhoods like Educated and The Glass Castle. * Booklist *A story of fierce love and family loyalty. * Good Morning America, 20 Books We’re Excited for in 2020 *The frontman of rock band Airborne Toxic Event chronicles, in gorgeous and exacting lyricism, his harrowing coming-of-age within (and eventual escape from) the Church of Synanon, a violent religious cult. * O, The Oprah Magazine, The 30 Most Anticipated Books of 2020 (so Far) *Jollett’s story serves as a potent reminder that while we cannot change the hand we’re dealt, our freedom lies in what we choose to do with those cards. * Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game, The Millions *A painstaking emotional accounting of a tortured youth ultimately redeemed through music, therapy, and love. * Kirkus, Starred Review *Jollett engagingly narrates his story … result[ing] in a shocking but contemplative memoir about the aftermath of an unhealthy upbringing. * Publishers Weekly, Starred Review *

Mikel Jollett is the frontman of the indie band The Airborne Toxic Event. Prior to forming the band, Jollett graduated with honors from Stanford University. He was an on-air columnist for NPR’s All Things Considered, an editor-at-large for Men’s Health and an editor at Filter magazine. His fiction has been published in McSweeney’s.