The 50th anniversary of Marilyn’s death was this month and it’s been heralded by an uptick in new books about her life. I reviewed Lois Banner’s biography Marilyn last week but was interested to see what a fiction author would do, especially as so much of Marilyn’s life reads like fiction anyway. How would one choose which way to go from the trove of material available? In ... Read More...
Motherland
In case you’re not up on all the New York City realty news Park Slope is a much sought after neighborhood in Brooklyn. It is apparently also home to five unhappy, angry, put-upon parents trying desperately to figure out where their lives went so horribly wrong. Rebecca seems to have it all but finds her husband to be more interested in the kids than in her. When they first ... Read More...
Rules of Civility
It is a rare occasion when the title of a book not only hints at the plot but perfectly describes the stylistic tone as well. The Rules of Civility is just such a book and it is a grand first effort for author Amor Towles. Towles takes us into Manhattan in 1938. Wealthy Manhattan, where what is said and seen on the surface is often not what is happening underneath. ... Read More...
City of Women
The grandpa just stares backward at a world that no longer exists, or forward to a world beyond his comprehension. For Sigrid Schröder her life in 1943 Berlin is one of grinding tedium, working days as a stenographer and spending nights in a small apartment with her mother-in-law and withdrawn husband. Her only escape is a movie theater where she can sit quietly in the ... Read More...
Semi-Charmed Life
Beatrice Bernstein, of the art world Bernsteins, is faced with a difficult decision: spend her senior year living in a roach and mold infested basement apartment or ghost-write a blog for the chic and mysterious socialite, Veruca Pfeffernoose. Balancing her ethics against sleepless nights fully clothed to avoid any contact with anything in her closet-apartment and Beatrice’s ... Read More...
Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox
August 5 will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe and 50 years later the attention on both her life and death is still strong. In Marilyn: The Passion & the Paradox, Lois Banner goes beyond the plethora of material already published about this glamorous American icon. While it might be hard to believe that there is anything left unknown, Banner’s ... Read More...
