(He’s a child of 1940s Hollywood—specifically, Casa Fiesta...)
He’s a child of 1940s Hollywood—specifically, Casa Fiesta, a ranch in the Malibu hills that he shares with his mother, a onetime Broadway headliner, and his father, a star of Westerns. But when his parents fall out of favor in Tinseltown, the narrator of this exquisitely crafted dark comedy loses his youthful idyll and accompanies his lovesick mother on a vodka-soaked international quest for romance and redemption.
(From a New York Times–bestselling author: A novel of post...)
From a New York Times–bestselling author: A novel of postwar American dreams and an Oklahoma ranching dynasty. A kingpin rancher in eastern Oklahoma, Earl Kruger built the largest cattle operation in the state. Admired for his ambition and hated for his ruthlessness, he was the last of a breed that rose to wealth and power out of the desolation of the dust bowl.
(The residents of Little Egypt, Illinois, admired Dr. John...)
The residents of Little Egypt, Illinois, admired Dr. John Dale Cavaness as a medical practitioner and a selfless humanitarian-not knowing he was also a brutal drunkard who murdered his two sons.
(A novel of a rebellious young actress in the early twenti...)
A novel of a rebellious young actress in the early twentieth century, by the PEN/Hemingway Award–winning author of A Way of Life. Margaret in Hollywood is the tale of a young woman who refuses to be owned and will not be cowed, and whose love of life propels her onward.
Power to Hurt: Inside a Judge's Chambers: Sexual Assault, Corruption, and the Ultimate Reversal of Justice for Women
(Encompasses the landmark federal case against Judge David...)
Encompasses the landmark federal case against Judge David Lainer, who was sentenced in April 1993 to twenty-five years without parole for harrassing, stalking, and raping nineteen women, and who was recently released. By the author of A Dark and Bloody Ground.
The Hidden Pope: The Untold Story of a Lifelong Friendship That Changed the Relationship Between Catholics and Jews
(In "The Hidden Pope," author Darcy O'Brien offers the acc...)
In "The Hidden Pope," author Darcy O'Brien offers the account of the extraordinary relationship of Karol Wojtyla and Jerzy Kluger - their boyhood in the small Polish town of Wadowice, their separation at the beginning of World War II, their individual experiences under Nazi and Soviet tyranny, and their reunion almost thirty years later that deepened their friendship and made a profound impact on the history of our time.
Darcy O'Brien was an American author of the novels A Way of Life, Like Any Other and The Silver Spooner as well as the nonfiction bestseller Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers.
Background
Darcy O'Brien was born on July 16, 1939 in Los Angeles, California, United States, into the family of George and Marguerite (Churchill) O'Brien. He grew up in Hollywood during the golden age of the motion picture. His parents played host to some of the industry’s biggest names, including John Wayne and John Ford.
Education
O'Brien attended Princeton University and University of Cambridge and received a master's degree and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkely in 1963 and 1965 respectively.
Darcy O'Brien started his academic career as a Fulbright scholar at Pembroke College at Cambridge University but returned to the United States to accept a teaching position at Pomona College in Claremont in 1965. In 1978 he took a post of a graduate professor of English at the University of Tulsa, a position he maintained until 1996. During his Tulsa tenure his first novel, A Way of Life, Like Any Other, was published. For this story, he fictionalized his boyhood in telling the tale of the son of two former Hollywood stars.
Another novel also dealt with the film capital of the world. Margaret in Hollywood, a fictionalized autobiography, tells the saga of a vaudeville actress from Kansas City who rose to the top of Hollywood stardom in the 1920s. In addition to his novels, O’Brien had written academic texts on such luminaries as James Joyce and Patrick Kavanagh. However, in the early 1980s, he turned to a “true crime" story when he decided to cover the trials of Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, accused of raping and murdering ten women in Los Angeles in 1977 and 1978. What piqued his interest in the trial was the fact that his former Princeton roommate, Ronald M. George, would be the trial judge.
The resulting book, Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers, was a hit and the basis for a television miniseries. He followed up with Murder in Little Egypt, the true story of Dr. Dale Cavaness, a heavy-drinking, spouse-abusing physician who killed two of his sons for money. Other “true crime” books by O’Brien include A Dark and Bloody Ground and Power to Hurt: Inside a Judge's Chambers: Sexual Assault, Corruption, and the Ultimate Reversal of Justice for Women. The book was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as a definitive background in the case of Judge David Lanier, who sexually abused women in his chambers and was convicted for his crimes.
O’Brien’s final book did not deal with crime but rather with the real-life relationship between Pope John Paul II and Jerzy Kluger. a Jewish friend from the pope’s childhood in Poland. The relationship is credited with helping foster the Vatican’s recognition of Israel.
Darcy O'Brien married Ruth Ellen Berke on August 26, 1961 but the couple divorced in 1968. Then he married Suzanne Beesley on February 27, 1987. All in all, O'Brien was married three times and had one daughter named Molly O'Brien.