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DOUBLEDAY / AUTHOR PHOTO BY VINCENT LEVY

The core argument of The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, Shawn Levy’s fantastic new history of the storied Los Angeles hotel, doesn’t arrive until the last page of the book. “In its way,” Levy writes, “Chateau Marmont has been essential and inevitable, its impact on its neighborhood and the business of show inestimable, its legend both likely and undeniable.”

What happens on the other 380 pages of this dishy, breezy tome is a condensed history of pop culture with copious actors, rock stars, filmmakers, scenesters, and troublemakers wandering through. Nearly every famous and infamous figure from the last 90 years makes a small or large appearance. The Castle on Sunset plays like a riff on Kenneth Anger’s legendary Hollywood Babylon, but consigned to one key locale.

As alluring as it is to read his takes on Tab Hunter’s dalliances and John Belushi’s fatal overdose, Levy’s greatest feat is how he makes dull facts about the design and history of the building as interesting as what went on inside it. Ownership of the Marmont changed hands a number of times since it opened its doors in 1929, and each new proprietor added their own touches. Levy’s research is extensive, but he doesn’t get bogged down in the minutiae. The book gets particularly meaty when its gossipy and historical sides crash together, such as with the arrival of André Balazs: the founder of the Standard hotel chain who was accused, in 2017, of multiple instances of sexual misconduct.

Throughout Levy’s previous biographies, of Robert DeNiro and Jerry Lewis, he was able to strike a perfect balance between the juicy tales that draw a reader in and more serious, occasionally difficult elements of their lives. He does a remarkable job of that throughout Castle too, not letting anyone off the hook for grave offenses—like director Nicholas Ray seducing a teenaged Natalie Wood, or Kelly Ebert embezzling millions from the hotel’s coffers.

Levy’s book also serves as a tidy history of the development of the Sunset Strip, and how its fortunes rose and fell with the times. Through his eyes, the Chateau Marmont becomes the structure of its title: a monument to LA’s continued dominance in the hearts and imaginations of the world.