Palo Alto.

I selected Palo Alto Stories off my bookshelf the other day for four reasons: 

1) It has some of the worst reviews ever (people actually hated this book) and I felt up for a challenge

2) It had an aesthetically pleasing front cover, so even if the book was bad I could just stare at the front and pretend I was reading.

3) There was a huge amount of hype about the movie adaptation, written and masterfully directed by Gia Coppola (and lord knows I love any movie directed by a Coppola)

4) I was super ill and needed to be entertained

Palo Alto is a series of short stories written and curated by James Franco. Many of the stories are loosely based around Franco's adolescence and his time at Palo Alto High School. 

Franco depicts the most unsettling portrait of his teenage hood, one that is still relevant, as each story realistically captures the detachment and indifference that teenagers use to approach and get through life. Each character lives only for the moment. The book portrays the unsettling feeling we get when we finally enter the adult world and realise how truly messed up adulthood is. Generations of us have experienced it and Franco suggests the staleness of it all. 

I read this book in the space of a day. I loved it and at the end of every story I was left staring at the page trying to recollect myself, because I related, in some way, to every short glimpse of those teenagers lives. If I and so many others I know loved it, why then did the book get such bad reviews? It was honest and shocking. I couldn't help but think that it was simply because it had been written by James Franco, the reviews weren't critiquing the stories, they were questioning his authenticity as an author. 

After finishing the book I watched Gia Coppola's movie, starring Emma Roberts, James Franco, Nat Wolff and Jack Kilmer. It was equally incredible to the book.

I was interested to see how Coppola would translate the short stories into a film and she did it effortlessly, carefully selecting and adapting them to create a continuum.  Coppola was chosen by Franco to direct the film after he saw a collection of her photography, and the collaboration resulted in a perfect nostalgic aesthetic. Wolff and Roberts characters stand out as their performances are unnerving and thought provoking.

Palo Alto allows you to enter into the complexities of life, not to part take, but to observe. It shocks you because you know it is real.

-A