Resurrecting this thread because I finished the novel QT wrote, with the same title and story (sort of).
While this was probably my least favorite of his movies, I loved this book. I guess I shouldn't be surprised he's a talented writer, but the voice in his scripts transfers well to prose. It allows him to capture the little bits of trivia he likes to drop. Several scenes in the movie pop up again in the book, but they are richer given the characters' inner monologues. The Bruce Lee scene, for one, plays out much better in the book, addressing pretty much all the criticism leveled at the movie version. And arguably the best scene in the book got cut for a quick voice-over in the movie. It's set in a piano bar, and my guess is music rights are cheaper to publish than put on screen.
Maybe the biggest surprise was how well the book handles Manson. QT clearly did his research. He manages to humanize the the iconic serial killer, which in this case means illustrating how he was just another never-was fame-seeker turned hippie pimp. The Sharon Tate scenes, while shorter, are good as well. Unlike the movie, I see now why both were included in the story, as examples of the worst and best things that can happen in Hollywood.
Throwing this last part in a spoiler tag out of an abundance of caution, deals with the primary difference between book and film:
My biggest gripe with the movie was the ending. It felt ... wrong. Icky I guess, trying to pretend tragic real world history can be rewritten like that. The book almost completely side-steps that issue. In the middle of the book, it casually mentions the time Rick Dalton took a flamethrower to three hippie home invaders, but doesn't specifically say who they were. We last see Sharon heading home to host a pool party on the fateful night, with no coda explaining her fate. The Spahn Ranch and a couple other scenes play out like the movie, but we never get a full description of the final fight. Instead the book ends with a far more ambiguous ending, which feels more like old school QT.
Anyway, a great read if that era of pop culture at all interests you.