quiet days in Los Angeles

The first time she heard someone complain life in Los Angeles, Eve Babitz thought she was dealing with a berserk because “How to believe it, frankly – with all these lemon trees and these flowers, everywhere”. An observation that could equally well apply to the youth of Eve Babitz, with the sweet scent of nonchalance and orange blossom. Born in 1943, Eve instantly rose to fame by posing nude as she pretended to play chess with Marcel Duchamp. A photograph that would cause a scandal today, but Eve was apparently satisfied with it.

In “Eve in Hollywood”, she seems to experience a permanent contentment, which gives the story a kind of blandness. Is inconsistency not, in California, the most common thing in the world? Eve Babitz never broods because, in addition to being beautiful, she adores beauty. To shine, when one looks (according to the person concerned) to Brigitte Bardot, is for her more than a gift from heaven – a full-time occupation:

“How is it,” she wonders, “that I didn’t become an accomplished musician instead of a blonde, with her feet in the water, on the beach? “

It is true that music flowed through his veins, his father being a violinist for 20th Century Fox.

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Ambiance Malibu

In these charming chronicles of a youth in Los Angeles, the author of “Sex & Rage” is also never as amusing as when she mentions Stravinsky, of whom she was the goddaughter. “He was tiny, happy and awesome, and he drank. He slipped me glasses of scotch under the coffee table when my mother had her back turned; I was thirteen. “ She was in love with Marlon Brando (“Viva Zapata!” Period) and Tony Curtis, and she had made Chateau Marmont her headquarters. She was taking drugs out of recklessness more than out of necessity, and found a way to explain to Bobby Kennedy, as she testified before a Senate committee on LSD:

“Everyone I know smokes marijuana except my grandmother. “

Other than that, she was writing. His talent, undeniable, never turned into a genius, because it would have taken a lot of effort to achieve it, and what Eve loved, it was just to run on the beach to spend the day there. If the Malibu vibe tempts you, these sparkling stories won’t disappoint. As long as you don’t leave the bottle open for too long, because you know what happens to the gas.

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Eve in Hollywood, by Eve Babitz, translated from English (United States) by Jakuta Alikavazovic, Seuil, 336 p., 22.50 euros.

Published in “L’OBS” on March 11, 2021.

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