Ring Lardner, Jr.'s memoir is a pilgrimage through the American century. In lively pages, peopled by a cast including Carole Lombard, Louis B. Mayer, Dalton Trumbo, Marlene Dietrich, Otto Preminger, Darryl F. Zanuck, Bertolt Brecht, Bert Lahr, Robert Altman, and Muhammad Ali, Lardner recalls the strange existence of a contract screenwriter in the vanished age of the studio system - an existence made stranger by membership in the Hollywood branch of the American Communist Party. Nation Books, 2000. Retail $14.95 (paper). Availability: Usually ships in 5-7 business days. 1560252960$7.95 33 Irving Place, New York New York 10003 212-209-5400 http://www.thenation.com Copyright © 2008 The Nation