Avenue of the Stars: 2 - Hardcover

In a tasteless spin on ethnic-stereotype war movies, this Pacific Rim business/suspense novel, the collaborative debut of travel- and scriptwriter Bacar and TV producer and former movie press-agent Cohen, chronicles the ruthless takeover of Hollywood's Constellation Studios. Billionaire Hiroshi Takashima, alias the Asian Octopus, seeks revenge for the obliteration of his family in Nagasaki's bombing. His battleground is the film industry; his first target, Jake Baron's family-owned studo. Enlisting Baron's debt-ridden stepson, Takashima achieves the takeover by arson and loan foreclosure. Baron's former lover and now studio president, Kelly Kristopher, resigns in the face of scandal-sheet headlines, but emerges to head up the Takashima-run enterprise. In a double vengeance plot, Takashima's adopted son, American-educated accountant Michio Noda, saves the studio, Kelly and greater Hollywood in reprisal for an event in Takashima's past. The Tokyo-based details of Takashima's corrupt dealings, Yakuza henchmen and sadistic erotic life are horrific but riveting. Less engaging is the Hollywood setting, consisting largely of celebrity party lists. There is arguably an echo of current events, but what rings stridently here is Japan-bashing, a theme which may, regrettably, find its audience.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It's easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys in this Hollywood novel primarily devoted to Japan-bashing. The heroes are the Americans, like Jake Barron, tough-but-honest owner of the last private movie studio in Hollywood. The villains are the Japanese, specifically Takishima, the Asian Octopus, who sees the takeover of Jake's movie studio as only the first step in a ruthless revenge plot to destroy Hollywood. The good guys win, of course, but it's a tough fight, requiring the combined efforts of Jake, the Justice Department, and Takishima's disillusioned heir-apparent, Noda. Although the novel has some suspenseful moments, they are overshadowed by a pedestrian writing style and a soap-opera plot (Bacarr in fact has written daytime scripts, and Cohen is a TV producer) featuring some distastefully sadistic sex scenes. Not recommended.
- Donna L. Schulman, Cornell Univ. Libs.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.