In Part I, Chapter I, the most important element to note is the thin veneer of fiction the author lays over a series of truths..... some concealed less successfully than others. Many of these truths include the identities of the real-life individuals upon whom some of the characters are based. For example, Lido Mamin is a barely disguised portrait of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (with, incidentally, the reference to Mamin foreshadowing a moment in Part 6, Chapter 21, in which dictatorial and over-emotional movie producer Harry Friedman is likened to him).
Hollywood: A Novel