Franco Needs a Higher Stick to Measure By

There once was a time when literary figures ruled the world. A trip back into the Victorian era, a visit from Charles Dickens to America closely resembled the chaos that accompanied The Beatles arrival to New York City and the commencement of the British Invasion.

So, with the recent publication of James Franco’s newest artistic venture, Palo Alto,--meaning "high stick"--named after Franco’s hometown of Palo Alto, Ca and home to his characters growing up in the suburbs in the 1990’s, literary review journals are all in a flutter to review the fruits of his labor.

James Franco may have cheated a little, already having been famous before his literary disposition came to light, but unlike other celebrity-turned-authors, this is not a book ghost-written by someone else with actual writing skill.

In the same vein as J.D. Salinger’s photograph featured in the original 1951 publication of The Catcher in the Rye, Franco’s book jacket’s black-and-white portrait features a clean-shaven Franco looking away from the camera lens.

In keeping in tone with Salinger, Franco’s debut of short stories is characterized with teenage angst, and restlessness. So will it become a classic among the disillusioned youth? Probably not.

Salon’s Louis Bayard says essentially says in his review—“Can James Franco write? Yes but…”—“Yes he can…[but] narrator after narrator speaks in the same clipped, bruised tone, and you don't even notice when a girl takes up the story thread because her diction is no different from the boy who preceded her. The only thing that gathers, finally, is a pool of self-pity.”

Franco’s prior celebrity status appears to have crippled what may have been a better-rounded series of short fiction in an effort to rush it into print earlier—an unlikely opportunity for most beginning their literary career, but Franco has no doubt revived attention that once hounded “literary stars”. So, could Franco be the one to usher in a new wave of young, hip literary celebrities?

Probably not, but with more revision perhaps he can earn a place in the hearts of the disenchanted youths of the suburbs.