Boy Wonder (novel)

Infobox Book
name = Boy Wonder
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = The first paperback edition of "Boy Wonder"
author = James Robert Baker
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Satire, Transgressional fiction
publisher = New American Library
release_date = 1988
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 470 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-453-00597-7
preceded_by = Fuel-Injected Dreams (1986)
followed_by = Tim And Pete (1993)

"Boy Wonder" is a novel written by James Robert Baker and was published in 1988. The novel is a form of a mock of oral history of Los Angeles, California in which we hear the life of Hollywood film producer Shark Trager.

Plot summary

The story starts off in 1988 in Los Angeles, California and is about an avant garde filmmaker named Gale "Shark" Trager who after living many years of life in the Hollywood fastlane dies tragically at the age of 38. After his death, we hear Trager's friends, family, rivals and enemies, and acquaintances being interviewed throughout the story in which the story builds up on.

Gale Trager was born in the backseat of a car at a drive-in theater in Long Beach, California in 1950. Trager was raised in what he called an "upper middle class, right wing household" and is abused physically and verbally by his father. At his early years of adolescence, Trager rebels against his family and society and spends time committing petty crimes or staying out late. By the age of 16 Trager starts hanging out with punks and hippies and also starts taking drugs, most specifically LSD, marijuana, and amphetamines becomes in his own words "an out of control, teenage speed freak". Realizing that drugs are affecting his life and his dream of becoming a famous filmmaker, he decides to quit his addiction and starts attending UCLA Film School.

After Trager graduates from UCLA in 1974, he spends the next few years writing screenplays which he hated. After directing two very unsuccessful pornographic films, Trager sells another movie idea of his to Paramount Pictures and the movie idea would become "Boy Wonder" which would be filmed in 1978. "Boy Wonder" was a box office hit and was nominated for six academy awards. After the success of "Boy Wonder", Trager would stop having to write screenplays and has begun his life in the fastlane as a famous Hollywood filmmaker.

After "Boy Wonder", Trager direct many other films. His last movie was "Home To The Heart" about his parents and was written by Woody while Shark was at his apartment holding a gun to his head and was absent from the film.

While Trager's wife Kathy won an Oscar, Shark didn't which drove him to suffer from severe bouts of depression. And his death spiral started the second they left the academy awards to find out that Trager d committed suicide by drowning himself in the San Francisco Bay. Most of Trager's body was consumed by sharks.

Reception

This is considered Baker's most well known work and was better reviewed by literary critics than any other of his novels. "Boy Wonder" is also Baker's most successful novel and had around 50,000 copies sold so far. This novel was also different than some of Baker's other novels because it was not gay-themed fiction like most of Baker's book even though they had gay characters. "Boy Wonder" is also somewhat of a semi-autobiography in a way, such as Trager and Baker were both born in Long Beach, California. Trager like Baker grew up in a well-to-do right wing family and they also took drugs as teenagers. And Trager and Baker both were students at UCLA Film School.

References

*Baker, James Robert. "Boy Wonder". California: ISBN 0-453-00597-7