Champtown
CHAMPTOWN. A sprawling and epic work, Champtown is a Hollywood story unlike any other. Set in a fictitious section of Los Angeles (Champion Valley) the novel spins a complex tale of rich and poor, desperation and ambition, violence and beauty. In CHAMPTOWN we encounter characters from across the spectrum of society, from the hellish streets of its inner city to the lavish movie mogul estates of Studio Ridge. We meet people and customs from invented countries and encounter a Hollywood background that weaves the real with the fictitious. If you read nothing else this year, you must read CHAMPTOWN, Wesley Gurion’s masterwork.

“A fresh take on 21st Century fiction lurks in the strange dreamscapes of novelist Wesley Gurion. Coming to life in stories that are both quirky and provocative, Gurion’s characters in CHAMPTOWN and his more recent THE HALLOWEEN KING, are a hybrid of film noir’s bright darkness and Fight Club’s bravado. If the reader is truly interested in what’s next, Gurion’s tales deserve a good look.”

Dr. C.M. Clark, Professor, Miami Dade College

The novel follows the stories of seven individuals from both sides of the river. Adam Haley came out of Champtown, a boy who took the bus across the bridge to play with the rich kids and grew up as one of them. Now, thirty-seven years old, Adam lives amongst the wealthy and seethes with jealousy. Dissatisfied with everything in his life, he turns his thoughts to Lefluer's Blossom Treasure, the missing fortune supposed to have been buried along with the remains of legendary bootlegger, Jean Lefluer.
Adam's childhood friend, Goteblan Freschi, never left the old neighborhood. The Bolsladian Gypsy has led a life of slick gigs and gypsy slams and, like Adam, is depressed over his future. But Goat is in big trouble. He owes the Shank organization $10,000, and with Champ King, the psychotic Shank enforcer after him to collect, Goat doesn't know where to turn. Like Adam, he, too, must find Lefluer's Blossom Treasure.
Only one man knows the location of the “Blossom,” but Harvard Dukes, known and beloved by everyone as “Uncle,” sits day after day on the scenic terrace of the sanitarium at Vista Mar. A rare brain disorder has diminished him and prevents him from recalling its location.
This is the premise that drives the story but there’s more. Across the river in his lavish home in the ridge, Elias Gimbol sits at his typewriter. The eighty year old Academy Award winning screenwriter has the most difficult task of his life in front of him: to finally tell the truth. To do so, he will meditate on a lifetime of association with Hollywood and Champion Studios and relive the dark incident that changed his life forever.
There’s even more, as the surprises keep coming. CHAMPTOWN never allows itself to settle into a predictable course. With new twists and characters introduced all along the way, the reading remains intense and gripping to the last page. Wesley Gurion’s CHAMPTOWN is more than a book; its an experience.
“Champtown by Wesley Gurion is a big, stirring, profound work of imagination. Highly fascinating original events are followed by more unique events. The dramatic intensity never flags nor hesitates. With a marvelous variety of characters rich with insight and brilliance of detail, Champtown is a warm and affectionate epic without the least trace of sentimentality. The dramatic range of this remarkable tale moves through richly perceived characters of the motion picture industry gradually down the social hierarchy into the depths of criminal socio-psychopathy, and even further with gripping detail into precisely documented pure evil. I suggest that the sophisticated voyeur of fine literature will hang this novel on his wall of honor, near to hand for frequent re-immersion.”

Vahan Gregory (1927—2008), Author, CHORDS OF RAIN, OH BOY HERE COMES WALT
1006972486
Champtown
CHAMPTOWN. A sprawling and epic work, Champtown is a Hollywood story unlike any other. Set in a fictitious section of Los Angeles (Champion Valley) the novel spins a complex tale of rich and poor, desperation and ambition, violence and beauty. In CHAMPTOWN we encounter characters from across the spectrum of society, from the hellish streets of its inner city to the lavish movie mogul estates of Studio Ridge. We meet people and customs from invented countries and encounter a Hollywood background that weaves the real with the fictitious. If you read nothing else this year, you must read CHAMPTOWN, Wesley Gurion’s masterwork.

“A fresh take on 21st Century fiction lurks in the strange dreamscapes of novelist Wesley Gurion. Coming to life in stories that are both quirky and provocative, Gurion’s characters in CHAMPTOWN and his more recent THE HALLOWEEN KING, are a hybrid of film noir’s bright darkness and Fight Club’s bravado. If the reader is truly interested in what’s next, Gurion’s tales deserve a good look.”

Dr. C.M. Clark, Professor, Miami Dade College

The novel follows the stories of seven individuals from both sides of the river. Adam Haley came out of Champtown, a boy who took the bus across the bridge to play with the rich kids and grew up as one of them. Now, thirty-seven years old, Adam lives amongst the wealthy and seethes with jealousy. Dissatisfied with everything in his life, he turns his thoughts to Lefluer's Blossom Treasure, the missing fortune supposed to have been buried along with the remains of legendary bootlegger, Jean Lefluer.
Adam's childhood friend, Goteblan Freschi, never left the old neighborhood. The Bolsladian Gypsy has led a life of slick gigs and gypsy slams and, like Adam, is depressed over his future. But Goat is in big trouble. He owes the Shank organization $10,000, and with Champ King, the psychotic Shank enforcer after him to collect, Goat doesn't know where to turn. Like Adam, he, too, must find Lefluer's Blossom Treasure.
Only one man knows the location of the “Blossom,” but Harvard Dukes, known and beloved by everyone as “Uncle,” sits day after day on the scenic terrace of the sanitarium at Vista Mar. A rare brain disorder has diminished him and prevents him from recalling its location.
This is the premise that drives the story but there’s more. Across the river in his lavish home in the ridge, Elias Gimbol sits at his typewriter. The eighty year old Academy Award winning screenwriter has the most difficult task of his life in front of him: to finally tell the truth. To do so, he will meditate on a lifetime of association with Hollywood and Champion Studios and relive the dark incident that changed his life forever.
There’s even more, as the surprises keep coming. CHAMPTOWN never allows itself to settle into a predictable course. With new twists and characters introduced all along the way, the reading remains intense and gripping to the last page. Wesley Gurion’s CHAMPTOWN is more than a book; its an experience.
“Champtown by Wesley Gurion is a big, stirring, profound work of imagination. Highly fascinating original events are followed by more unique events. The dramatic intensity never flags nor hesitates. With a marvelous variety of characters rich with insight and brilliance of detail, Champtown is a warm and affectionate epic without the least trace of sentimentality. The dramatic range of this remarkable tale moves through richly perceived characters of the motion picture industry gradually down the social hierarchy into the depths of criminal socio-psychopathy, and even further with gripping detail into precisely documented pure evil. I suggest that the sophisticated voyeur of fine literature will hang this novel on his wall of honor, near to hand for frequent re-immersion.”

Vahan Gregory (1927—2008), Author, CHORDS OF RAIN, OH BOY HERE COMES WALT
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Champtown

Champtown

by Wesley Gurion
Champtown

Champtown

by Wesley Gurion

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Overview

CHAMPTOWN. A sprawling and epic work, Champtown is a Hollywood story unlike any other. Set in a fictitious section of Los Angeles (Champion Valley) the novel spins a complex tale of rich and poor, desperation and ambition, violence and beauty. In CHAMPTOWN we encounter characters from across the spectrum of society, from the hellish streets of its inner city to the lavish movie mogul estates of Studio Ridge. We meet people and customs from invented countries and encounter a Hollywood background that weaves the real with the fictitious. If you read nothing else this year, you must read CHAMPTOWN, Wesley Gurion’s masterwork.

“A fresh take on 21st Century fiction lurks in the strange dreamscapes of novelist Wesley Gurion. Coming to life in stories that are both quirky and provocative, Gurion’s characters in CHAMPTOWN and his more recent THE HALLOWEEN KING, are a hybrid of film noir’s bright darkness and Fight Club’s bravado. If the reader is truly interested in what’s next, Gurion’s tales deserve a good look.”

Dr. C.M. Clark, Professor, Miami Dade College

The novel follows the stories of seven individuals from both sides of the river. Adam Haley came out of Champtown, a boy who took the bus across the bridge to play with the rich kids and grew up as one of them. Now, thirty-seven years old, Adam lives amongst the wealthy and seethes with jealousy. Dissatisfied with everything in his life, he turns his thoughts to Lefluer's Blossom Treasure, the missing fortune supposed to have been buried along with the remains of legendary bootlegger, Jean Lefluer.
Adam's childhood friend, Goteblan Freschi, never left the old neighborhood. The Bolsladian Gypsy has led a life of slick gigs and gypsy slams and, like Adam, is depressed over his future. But Goat is in big trouble. He owes the Shank organization $10,000, and with Champ King, the psychotic Shank enforcer after him to collect, Goat doesn't know where to turn. Like Adam, he, too, must find Lefluer's Blossom Treasure.
Only one man knows the location of the “Blossom,” but Harvard Dukes, known and beloved by everyone as “Uncle,” sits day after day on the scenic terrace of the sanitarium at Vista Mar. A rare brain disorder has diminished him and prevents him from recalling its location.
This is the premise that drives the story but there’s more. Across the river in his lavish home in the ridge, Elias Gimbol sits at his typewriter. The eighty year old Academy Award winning screenwriter has the most difficult task of his life in front of him: to finally tell the truth. To do so, he will meditate on a lifetime of association with Hollywood and Champion Studios and relive the dark incident that changed his life forever.
There’s even more, as the surprises keep coming. CHAMPTOWN never allows itself to settle into a predictable course. With new twists and characters introduced all along the way, the reading remains intense and gripping to the last page. Wesley Gurion’s CHAMPTOWN is more than a book; its an experience.
“Champtown by Wesley Gurion is a big, stirring, profound work of imagination. Highly fascinating original events are followed by more unique events. The dramatic intensity never flags nor hesitates. With a marvelous variety of characters rich with insight and brilliance of detail, Champtown is a warm and affectionate epic without the least trace of sentimentality. The dramatic range of this remarkable tale moves through richly perceived characters of the motion picture industry gradually down the social hierarchy into the depths of criminal socio-psychopathy, and even further with gripping detail into precisely documented pure evil. I suggest that the sophisticated voyeur of fine literature will hang this novel on his wall of honor, near to hand for frequent re-immersion.”

Vahan Gregory (1927—2008), Author, CHORDS OF RAIN, OH BOY HERE COMES WALT

Product Details

BN ID: 2940016417660
Publisher: Three Stars Press
Publication date: 06/07/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Wesley Gurion was born in Hollywood, California in 1955. He has lived, worked and written in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Miami, and London. He is the author of numerous books, novels, and “shorts,” pieces on a wide variety of topics. To each of these he brings his own original style and outlook. Currently he is back in Hollywood, writing his weekly series of “Hollywood Shorts,” soon to be available on Nook.

Please look for Nook editions of these outstanding Wesley Gurion novels:

CHAMPTOWN. A sprawling and epic work, Champtown is a Hollywood story unlike any other. Set in a fictitious section of Los Angeles (Champion Valley) the novel spins a complex tale of rich and poor, desperation and ambition, violence and beauty. In CHAMPTOWN we encounter characters from across the spectrum of society, from the hellish streets of its inner city to the lavish movie mogul estates of Studio Ridge. We meet people and customs from invented countries and encounter a Hollywood background that weaves the real with the fictitious. If you read nothing else this year, you must read CHAMPTOWN, Wesley Gurion’s masterwork.

THE HALLOWEEN KING. Small time inventor Garson Shriner has created the “Flash Mask,” a Halloween novelty that may just revolutionize the industry! But it has been stolen by the world’s biggest Halloween supply company! Just when Garson decides he needs a professional criminal to retrieve his invention, a fleeing bank robber jumps into his car at gun point! Now things get interesting! Join Garson Shriver and bank robber Johnny Race as they take on the mighty Halloween King in a classic story of plot twists and surprises. “The Halloween King” is a crime caper written with originality and style. Another Gurion adventure!

HOLLYWOOD SHORTS. Join author Wesley Gurion for in in-depth exploration of Hollywood, its history, its myths, its ghosts, the astounding power it has held over our hopes and dreams for over a century. Written in Hollywood itself, each week will be a different adventure as we examine the potency of Hollywood’s myth-making, sometimes journeying back in time to meet such legends as Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and Orson Welles. Discover old Hollywood and new in this fascinating and thought provoking series. Only 99¢ each!
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