Loser deals

the long version

Loser Deals is an urbane, sophisticated novel in the literary tradition of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, by the author of White Hunter, Black Heart. Alternating between the venues of Hollywood in its golden age and present-day Spain, Loser Deals chronicles the life of Gatsbyesque Robert Masters, a forcibly retired movie actor (owing to an indiscretion with an all-powerful mogul's ladyfriend). Viertel creates a tragicomic landscape, weaving in the often tempestuous relationships of Masters with a retinue of compelling characters, including: his married but restless daughter, Susan; his loyal but too-wise lover, Carmen; and the haughty Lady Pamela and her rogue husband, Sir Cecil Collins.