Author: Melanie Benjamin
Published: January 16th 2018 by Delacorte Press
Format: eBook, Hardcover, 448 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
I am not sure how I feel about this book. Melanie Benjamin reanimates two fascinating characters and weaves behind the scene details that though they may be fiction, have a ring of truth that makes the reader feel as both a voyeur and an innocent bystander. A coming of age set between the ‘flickers’ and the ‘talkies’ and how the new world order would leave some behind and offer new direction to others.
As a twice-divorced woman, Francis Marion arrived in Los Angeles and became one of Hollywood’s most influential writers between the 1915 and the 1930’s. When movies were still known as flickers, Francis was the scenarist that developed a guide for directors and actors of the silent era to follow.
Mary Pickford was the ‘girl with the curls’, Americas Sweetheart that glowed on film and had throngs of adoring fans. Her admiring public did not want her to grow up. Remembering her beginnings, she felt that she owed to her fans what they wanted even if it was in conflict with the woman she was becoming. Little did she know that once her curls were gone so was her career and her husband.
When Francis and Mary met, no one could have imagined what they would, as a team, both build and destroy. Francis became Mary’s only screenwriter. Francis created Mary’s most memorable characters and as the silent era faded and the talkies took over – only one would make the successful leap.
The beginning and end of this book were mesmerizing. The middle had angered me. Two strong women became simpering fools over the men in their lives. So, I am going to skip over that and concentrate on the strength that this team shared until it became unbearable for both. Their story unfolds in alternating chapters and Pickford’s part definitely lacks in both the storytelling and atmosphere. It is obvious from the start that this is Francis’s story and though Pickford is central, she lacks the glow that her movie persona held.
By the end, Francis has to confront one serious question. Is she responsible for the wreck of the person that Mary had become? With only the two of them left to face regret and loss, they must come to terms with whom they were and who they are now. Were they truly friends or were they co-dependent? Each only taking what the other could offer. Did Francis condemn Pickford to always be a little girl on the screen due to the very first screenplay that she had written for her? Or was it Francis’s sole intention to give Mary an on screen childhood that that she was denied?
Admitting that she took artistic license, Melanie Benjamin did not write a biography, it is a fictionalized tale of two influential women that were innovators and artists in Hollywood’s Golden Age. A story that exposes the Golden Age and lays bare the inner workings both in front of and behind the screen.
As a twice-divorced woman, Francis Marion arrived in Los Angeles and became one of Hollywood’s most influential writers between the 1915 and the 1930’s. When movies were still known as flickers, Francis was the scenarist that developed a guide for directors and actors of the silent era to follow.
Mary Pickford was the ‘girl with the curls’, Americas Sweetheart that glowed on film and had throngs of adoring fans. Her admiring public did not want her to grow up. Remembering her beginnings, she felt that she owed to her fans what they wanted even if it was in conflict with the woman she was becoming. Little did she know that once her curls were gone so was her career and her husband.
When Francis and Mary met, no one could have imagined what they would, as a team, both build and destroy. Francis became Mary’s only screenwriter. Francis created Mary’s most memorable characters and as the silent era faded and the talkies took over – only one would make the successful leap.
The beginning and end of this book were mesmerizing. The middle had angered me. Two strong women became simpering fools over the men in their lives. So, I am going to skip over that and concentrate on the strength that this team shared until it became unbearable for both. Their story unfolds in alternating chapters and Pickford’s part definitely lacks in both the storytelling and atmosphere. It is obvious from the start that this is Francis’s story and though Pickford is central, she lacks the glow that her movie persona held.
By the end, Francis has to confront one serious question. Is she responsible for the wreck of the person that Mary had become? With only the two of them left to face regret and loss, they must come to terms with whom they were and who they are now. Were they truly friends or were they co-dependent? Each only taking what the other could offer. Did Francis condemn Pickford to always be a little girl on the screen due to the very first screenplay that she had written for her? Or was it Francis’s sole intention to give Mary an on screen childhood that that she was denied?
Admitting that she took artistic license, Melanie Benjamin did not write a biography, it is a fictionalized tale of two influential women that were innovators and artists in Hollywood’s Golden Age. A story that exposes the Golden Age and lays bare the inner workings both in front of and behind the screen.
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