Jerome Charyn on Big Red
Since he first appeared on the American literary scene, Jerome Charyn has dazzled readers with his \u201cblunt, brilliantly crafted prose\u201d \n\nWith Big Red, Charyn reimagines the life of one of America\u2019s most enduring icons, \u201cGilda\u201d herself, Rita Hayworth, whose fiery red tresses and hypnotic dancing graced the silver screen over sixty times in her nearly forty-year career. The quintessential movie star of the 1940s, Hayworth has long been objectified as a sex symbol, pin-up girl, and so-called Love Goddess.\n\nReanimating such classic films as Gilda and The Lady from Shanghai, Big Red is a bittersweet paean to Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age, a tender yet honest portrait of a time before blockbusters and film franchises\u2015one that promises to consume both Hollywood cinephiles and neophytes alike. Lauded for his \u201cpolymorphous imagination\u201d (Jonathan Lethem), Charyn once again has created one of the most inventive novels in recent American literature.