Veena’s review of Stars Over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner
Womens Fiction published by NAL 06 Jan 16
This book was a MUST READ for me, given that I spent a lot early years in my career working in Hollywood. Certainly a behind-the-scenes look into one of the epic movies of our times, written by an author whose writing I enjoy, only added to the allure.
I felt quite nostalgic as Violet and Audrey pass their working day on the back 40 and business offices of Selznick films. Not that I worked in production, but memories of walking into various sound stages or watching the filming of many a motion picture filmed on the back lot of Paramount Pictures came alive for me as Violet did her secretarial stint on the production of Gone with the Wind, a job that Audrey got for her with her connections.
Despite all the glamour at heart, this is a story of friendship mixed in with envy and betrayal. From the very beginning both women wanted different things out of life. Audrey had come to Hollywood to be discovered, but, unfortunately for her, just as she was cast in the part of her life, the silent talkies were replaced and her chance at stardom passed her by. From that point on, working in the secretarial pool, Audrey’s goal is to work the system in order to get her chance to be a movie star. She equates this success as happiness and overlooks Bert, one of the first friends she made in Hollywood, and his love for her.
Violet, on the other hand, wants the white picket fence and a family, even if she’s in Hollywood, because an illness left her unable to have children. She wants what Bert feels for Audrey and does her best to manipulate the situation to move Bert’s interest from Audrey to herself. Her chance comes when Audrey drunkenly brings home a wardrobe prop from Gone With the Wind, which gets Bert in trouble. Violet hides the prop and proceeds to win Bert’s affections away from Audrey. Violet has more to be jealous of when Audrey gets pregnant on the cusp of an opportunity of a career in television and wants Violet and Bert to adopt her baby.
In a way quintessentially Ms. Meissner, the story moves between the current times when the wardrobe prop shows up in a package of vintage clothing donated to a vintage clothing store by Violet’s descendants. As the store owner tracks the prop back to her childhood babysitter Violet and meets up with Violet’s daughter and great grandchildren, the past unfolds.
A large part of the story is set against the filming and release of Gone With the Wind, giving readers a fascinating look behind the scenes into what it takes to make and release a movie. The author skilfully mixes fact with fiction such that it’s hard to tell one from the other. I did find some parts a bit slow, but overall it’s an enjoyable story.
Grade: C+
Summary:
Los Angeles, Present Day. When an iconic hat worn by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind ends up in Christine McAllister’s vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie…
Los Angeles, 1938. Violet Mayfield sets out to reinvent herself in Hollywood after her dream of becoming a wife and mother falls apart, and lands a job on the film-set of Gone With the Wind. There, she meets enigmatic Audrey Duvall, a once-rising film star who is now a fellow secretary. Audrey’s zest for life and their adventures together among Hollywood’s glitterati enthrall Violet…until each woman’s deepest desires collide. What Audrey and Violet are willing to risk, for themselves and for each other, to ensure their own happy endings will shape their friendship, and their lives, far into the future.
No excerpt available.
