Overview

"""In Sklar's memoir, a journalist and Oscar-nominated screenwriter reflects on his professional and personal journey....A beautifully written account of a principled life.""-Kirkus, starred review ""Sklar creates a sensitive, illuminating portrait of his life through loving accounts of the people who have truly moved and changed him.""-Publishers Weekly, Editor's Pick In this moving non-fiction collection, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Sklar (JFK, with Oliver Stone) leads readers on an unpredictable personal journey through seven decades of our collective history and politics. Sklar's wide-ranging essays take us from the hysteria and fear of the 1950s Hollywood blacklist to his collaboration with writer-director Oliver Stone on the screenplay of JFK and the glamour of the Academy Awards. From the Sixties counter culture of California to the Black Gullah-Geechee culture of a South Carolina Sea Island cut off from mainstream America. From the Japanese internment camps of World War II to the coffee fields of 1980s war-torn Nicaragua. From thoroughbred horses running at Saratoga Race Course to a mangy street dog looking for love in the zócalo of Oaxaca, Mexico. At every stop on this memorable journey, Sklar draws vivid portraits of unforgettable brave souls doing the hard work to create a more peaceful, just, and loving world."

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9781954744967

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Reviews

In Sklar's memoir, a journalist and Oscar-nominated screenwriter reflects on his professional and personal journey. The author experienced paranoia from a young age as the son of a playwright, George Sklar, an ex-Communist whose career was negatively affected by the Red Scare of the mid-20th century. Sklar's parents largely kept to themselves, warning their son not to stand out as an activist or objector. Despite this, Sklar enrolled at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1966 and began attending demonstrations. Eventually, Sklar moved to New York City and worked as a proofreader and freelance journalist. He volunteered to pick coffee beans in Nicaragua for a month at the height of the contra war, and a chance meeting with lifelong leftist activists Ellen Ray and Bill Schaap led to his biggest career break yet: editing one of the books, On the Trail of the Assassins(1988), that would become the basis for Oliver Stone's controversial 1991 film JFK, co-adapting the screenplay with Stone and earning an Academy Award nomination. Sklar's involvement with the project marked the end of his mainstream journalism career; he began a second act as a screenwriter and instructor at the prestigious Sundance Institute. Across seven essays, Sklar's plainspoken voice educates, entertains, and never condescends. His descriptions of life-altering blacklists, homespun island funeral ceremonies, and a dog in distress in Mexico ( By the time Sarah got back, Diane had picked him up and was cradling him like a baby. The trusting dog didn't fuss or fight. He lay there, his head on Diane's breast, his sweet eyes fixed on her face ) are powerful and true. He guides the reader through a fascinating journey marked by a primary inner conflict: to loudly proclaim one's beliefs and potentially lose a livelihood, or suffer in silence? There are no easy answers for Sklar-however, there is always the possibility of human connection, whether in hotel bars, fast cars, or Oaxacan streets. A beautifully written account of a principled life. -Kirkus

"""In Sklar's memoir, a journalist and Oscar-nominated screenwriter reflects on his professional and personal journey. The author experienced paranoia from a young age as the son of a playwright, George Sklar, an ex-Communist whose career was negatively affected by the Red Scare of the mid-20th century. Sklar's parents largely kept to themselves, warning their son not to stand out as an activist or objector. Despite this, Sklar enrolled at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1966 and began attending demonstrations. Eventually, Sklar moved to New York City and worked as a proofreader and freelance journalist. He volunteered to pick coffee beans in Nicaragua for a month at the height of the contra war, and a chance meeting with lifelong leftist activists Ellen Ray and Bill Schaap led to his biggest career break yet: editing one of the books, On the Trail of the Assassins(1988), that would become the basis for Oliver Stone's controversial 1991 film JFK, co-adapting the screenplay with Stone and earning an Academy Award nomination. Sklar's involvement with the project marked the end of his mainstream journalism career; he began a second act as a screenwriter and instructor at the prestigious Sundance Institute. Across seven essays, Sklar's plainspoken voice educates, entertains, and never condescends. His descriptions of life-altering blacklists, homespun island funeral ceremonies, and a dog in distress in Mexico (""By the time Sarah got back, Diane had picked him up and was cradling him like a baby. The trusting dog didn't fuss or fight. He lay there, his head on Diane's breast, his sweet eyes fixed on her face"") are powerful and true. He guides the reader through a fascinating journey marked by a primary inner conflict: to loudly proclaim one's beliefs and potentially lose a livelihood, or suffer in silence? There are no easy answers for Sklar-however, there is always the possibility of human connection, whether in hotel bars, fast cars, or Oaxacan streets. A beautifully written account of a principled life."" -Kirkus, starred review"

Author Information

Zachary Sklar is a screenwriter, journalist, author, and editor. He is best known as co-author, with Oliver Stone, of the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for the film JFK. His other screen credits include La Fiesta del Chivo (Feast of the Goat) and Hanyut (Almayer's Folly). He leads the screenwriting section of the Harlem Dramatic Writing Workshop and has served as a creative adviser for Sundance Screenwriting Labs around the world, from Utah to Mexico, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Cuba. He also taught magazine writing at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism for a decade. As a journalist, he has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, and Huffington Post, among others. He has edited numerous non- fiction books, including the number-one-bestselling On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison, Moving the Bar: My Life as a Radical Lawyer by Michael Ratner, Profits of War by Ari Ben-Menashe, and Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA by Ralph McGehee. He lives in Olivebridge, New York.

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