The Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes is not just a book about Roger Corman and an outstanding cast of familiar and funny supporting characters. It's a novel about Hollywood when it stood poised between the collapse of the old studio system and the rise of the new independent film movement, a monumental change for which Corman was largely responsible. It's also a romantic story about finding the courage to reshape your own world and—perhaps most importantly—about the risks and challenges artists must sometimes face if they want to advance to the next plateau.