The Girls in the Picture - The Beginning of Hollywood

Title:  The Girls in the Picture
Author:  Melanie Benjamin
Edition:  Delacorte Press, 2018
Setting:  Hollywood
Genre:  Historical Fiction

The blurb for this novel reads: "An intimate portrait of the close friendship and powerful creative partnership between two of Hollywood’s earliest female superstars: Frances Marion and Mary Pickford. An enchanting new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviator’s Wife."  

It doesn't do it justice.  It's more than that description, which sounds like a dusty piece of historical non-fiction.  Instead, this is a vibrant portrait, not only of two women (rare enough!), but of the beginning of an industry - Hollywood.  And by beginning, I mean starting in pre-WWI America, with "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford moving from theatre to being "the Biograph girl" to filming by the seat of the pants in very early Hollywood.  And who is Frances Marion, you ask?  Friend to Mary Pickford, screenwriter, director, author, and one of the most influential women in Hollywood in the days when women had a lot of influence in Hollywood.   

And this power and influence is one of the themes of this novel, as Mary and Frances take advantage of the fact that movies are a new industry, one without rules and customs that would keep them from having power and influence.  And how they use it!  Both become among the highest paid in their professions, Frances wins two Oscars, Mary is the driving force and one of the owners of United Artists Studio.  Beyond their professional lives, the book is also the story of their friendship and an honest depiction of both the power struggles within that friendship and the strong bonds that helped them make their way through life. 

Finally, it's the story of an industry alive with new ideas and innovations:  "These are the golden years, we assured each other, sometimes solemnly, sometimes with a giddy laugh, before one of us jumped up with an idea or a bit to add to a scene and then we were off and running, Mickey scrambling up a ladder behind the camera to shout out the new setup to the extras, while Mary got down on her kneed and tickled the children in the cast to get them to act more naturally around her, and I raced off to the prop department to retrieve the items required..."

Melanie Benjamin says in her author's note that she hopes people will think of Mary Pickford and Frances Marion as more than just names, but as innovators, artists, and friends.  I think she's written a book that will assure that. Highly recommended.

The Girl From Simon's Bay

Title: The Girl From Simon's Bay
Author: Barbara Mutch
Edition: Allison & Busby, 2017
Setting: South Africa
Genre: Historical Fiction

"Simon’s Town is a vibrant and diverse community in a picturesque part of the Union of South Africa, with a Royal Navy port at the town’s heart. Louise Ahrendts, daughter of a shipbuilder, nurtures the dream of becoming a nurse and in a world of unwritten, unspoken rules about colour, she has the strength to make it a reality. As the port becomes a hub of activity following the outbreak of the Second World War, Louise crosses paths with a man she is determined to be with – despite all the obstacles life and conflict throw in their way. But when a new troubled moment of history dawns, can they find their way back to each other?"  

That blurb would lead you to think that this novel is a romance novel.   While there is a romance element to this story of star-crossed lovers in South Africa during World War II, it's really much more about Louise's attempt to live a better life than the society she lives in allows her.   And that story is far more interesting than the romance, which never really rang true to me (an Earl, really?  He couldn't just be, oh an accountant or teacher or something more ordinary and realistic?).  But Louise's journey from school girl to nurse and her struggle to make more of her life while remaining true to her family, friend Piet, and her community is engaging and well written.  Also well written are author's descriptions of her community and especially of the sea Louise loves, even as a small child:

"Infant waves curled towards me over the crystal sand.  Footsteps thundered from behind.  I reached out both hands to seize the oncoming water with its lace of bubbles and fell forward.  Cold, green liquid gurgled into my mouth, lapped at my forehead and just as it started to trickle into my ears, a pair of familiar hands grabbed me around the middle and pulled me clear."

Those hands belong to her father Solly.  Solly, Louise's mother Sheila, her friend Piet and her neighbors all live in the seaside town of Simon's Bay.  As "coloured" people, they have little money and the most difficult jobs, but they have carved out lives for themselves - quite literally out of the steep hillsides that threaten to slide their homes into the sea on occasion.  Louise, a bright child whose parents support her throughout the story, dreams of bigger opportunities than being a maid.  After many struggles she becomes a nurse in the British naval hospital in the town and that is where she meets the story's love interest.  As I said earlier, this part of the story didn't work as well for me (and I felt very sorry for her friend Piet, a boy who cares for her but has no parental support and nothing in the way of opportunity).  Still, it is a fine story with vivid writing, strong characterization, and without going into spoilers, emotionally stirring scenes, like the one in which Louise's family is forcibly moved: 

"The loaders became, if anything, more frenzied in their unpacking than in the packing.  The police had already abandoned our miserable procession at the limits of Simon's Town, so there was no one to watch or possible temper the loaders' attitude if they'd been open to persuasion.  But it was already late afternoon, and clocking off was upper most in their minds.  Our possessions were hurled off the vehicles with no care at all.  Furniture splintered, bags split, suitcases burst open.  The Gamiels, in the truck alongside, had used up all their anger at the start of the day and worked silently, gathering up the disarrayed possessions as best they could."

I'd read about such things in history books, but this is a case where fiction is better at showing the cruelty and harshness and unfairness.

If you're interested in historical fiction on a subject - and indeed, country - that seldom features in such books, or are looking for a novel with strong characters and some lyrical writing, you'll be glad you read The Girl From Simon's Bay.

Library Loot

Back from a break & some Thanksgiving travel and it's time for Library Loot!

Leaving Berlin, by Joseph Kanon.  I'm new to Kanon's writing, but so far, I'm enjoying this story of Berlin during the airlift of the late 1940s.   















Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys, by Mary Gibson.  Don't be deceived by the title or cover, either of which would lead you to believe this is a breezy historical romance.  This is the tale of two British sisters during WWII who live in a poor section of London.  Much grittier than I had assumed and the writing moves right along.  









Library Loot is courtesy of The Silly Little Mischief blog

Book Beginning

From Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves, by Rachel Malik:  

"She stood at the window, looking out at the fields beyond, her fields.  The calves were up by the gate, nosing each other, waiting for her - still unsure of their new routine.  The great horse chestnut tree was swaying, she could hear it from here, feel the cool of its shade.  In Fair Field, the oats were just starting to pale - her oats.  The rest of the view was blocked by the tallboy.  She had dragged it in last night.  It was badly splintered at the back, but at least it was empty.  She carried on standing at the window, looking out, waiting."

This is the wonderful opening sentence to an excellent novel.  The lovely descriptive writing is found throughout the book.  And we know that "she", whoever she is, has a strong sense of ownership over everything she's looking at, new though it may be to the cows (and to her?).  And then there's that tallboy.  Why is she dragging it in?  That phrase, "badly splintered" is going to be a theme of this novel, in the material poverty both characters endure.  "She" is Miss Boston, and she is waiting for Miss Hargreaves to join her on her English farm during WWII.   Read on for a beautifully written character study.  



Book Beginning is courtesy of Rose City Reader

Library Loot

This week's haul:
 

Wickwythe Hall, by Judithe Little.   Historical fiction about the home front in WWII Britain?  I'm in.  
















Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves, by Rachel Malik.  Inspired by the author's family history and filled with beautiful prose.  Review coming.  

Bone Meal for Roses, by Miranda Sherry.  Set in South Africa, a story of love and loss.   














Library Loot is courtesy of the Silly Little Mischief blog

Briefly Reviewed

Title:The Way to London

Author: Alix Rickloff
Edition: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2017
Setting: WWII Britain and Singapore
Genre: Historical Fiction

 I enjoyed reading this interesting if a bit predictable book. This work of historical fiction is set in WWII; it begins Singapore and ends in London with a road trip along the way (as the title alludes to). Lucy is an unhappy, rebellious, spoiled young woman - unhappy and rebellious for good reasons, but still. She is sent away from Singapore to relatives in Cornwall by her truly awful mother (the relatives and the country house in Cornwall will be familiar to readers of Alix Rickloff's "Secrets of Nanreath Hall"). In Singapore she meets a young man who is also headed to Britain. Once Lucy gets to Cornwall the story really begins, as Lucy gets involved with a young evacuee, Bill who is miserable in his foster parents' home. The two of them end up on a journey to London to find Bill's mother (and a symbolic journey to find love). Bill provides amusement in the novel; I enjoyed that character more than any other. The young man joins Lucy and Bill and there is a satisfying end for all. As I say, a bit predictable, but still quite enjoyable. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a well-written and researched WWII novel that is somewhat lighter in tone than most in that category. I received a copy through the Early Reviewers Giveaway at Library Thing.

Sacrifice and Survival in the Boer War

Title: The Lost History of Stars

Author: Dave Boling

Edition: Algonquin Books, June, 2017

Setting: Southern Africa, early 1900s

Genre: Historical Fiction

How many of us know much of anything about the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902? Before reading this fine novel, I knew that it was fought in what is now South Africa, that it was a war between the British and Afrikaners, and that concentration camps were somehow involved. One of the marvels of good historical fiction is that it can educate and illuminate and bring history to life. The book did just that.

The narrator, Aletta (called “Lettie”) is a young girl from a Boer farming family whose grandfather, father, and older brother have gone to war. The opening of the story is riveting: Lettie describes the raid on their farm by the British forces who brutally destroy everything on the farm and burn their home, threatening Lettie’s young brother Willem with a firing squad to try to get him to tell them where their men have gone. Lettie, Willem, her young sister Cecelia, and her mother are then forced into a concentration camp. The camp is a miserable, unhealthy place. Lack of food, poor sanitation, and overcrowding lead to disease and death (over 20,000 Boer women and children died in these camps).

Lettie survives through stories: by making up stories to tell her little sister, by imagining stories for herself and remembering those told to her by her grandfather, and by reading whatever she can get her hands on, including a copy of David Copperfield, given to her by a British camp guard, Tommy Maples. Maples is a nineteen year old guard who joined the army for adventure. He finds that he hates the war, and is ashamed and miserable guarding women and children in the awful circumstances of the camp. Lettie hides her growing relationship with Maples from her mother, who is steadfastly and violently opposed to anything to do with the British, including family members who have cooperated with them.

Boling explores issues of loyalty, imagination, sacrifice, and cost of survival in this finely written book. His descriptions of both the beauty and harshness of the land, and the misery of the camp are memorable. And while it sounds grim (and it is), the final chapter is a beautiful and hopeful resolution. Highly recommended.

Historical Fiction at its Finest

Title: Zemindar

Author: Valerie Fitzgerald
Edition: Bantam Books (paperback), 1983
Setting: 1857 India
Genre: Historical Fiction

Valerie Fitzgerald wrote only one book. But what a book it is. Don't be deceived by the paperback's romance novel cover: “Zemindar” is historical fiction at its finest.

Set in India at the time of the Sepoy Mutiny (also referred to as the Indian Rebellion or the First War of Indian Independence) in 1857, this is the story of an English spinster and poor relation, Laura Hewitt, who accompanies her newly-married cousin Emily and Emily's husband, Charles, on a honeymoon trip to India. It seems that Charles is related to a zemindar, a wealthy landowner in India named Oliver Erskine and since Mr. Erskine is childless, hopes to be named his heir. The relationship between these four people is complicated: Laura believes herself to be in love with Charles, Charles' and Emily's marriage is unhappy, and Oliver Erskine? Well, he's enigmatic. Slowly, Laura finds herself less and less enamored of Charles and more interested in Oliver.

It is during the honeymoon stay at Erskine's estate that the Mutiny breaks out. They escape to the Residency at Lucknow and join the many who are beseiged there. The hardships, fear, brutality and death during the Mutiny change each of Fitzgerald's characters. And they are superb characters: besides the four main characters who run the gamut from spoiled and shallow to strong and colorful, she gives us Toddy Bob, Oliver's Cockney servant; Kate, a tough but kind wife of an army officer; Moti, Oliver's Indian mistress, and many other vivid characters.

The author's grandmother lived through the Mutiny and that the author lived in Lucknow during WWII; her description of India (Erskine's estate, Hassanganj, and the Residency at Lucknow in particular) is superb, filled with detail that is included not for the sake of showing us how much research she has done, but to illuminate her story.

This is a sweeping, vivid book that reaches a deeply satisfying conclusion. It's long (almost 800 pages), so set aside some time to enjoy this superb novel, which has only recently been made available as a Kindle book.