A Touch of Stardust

December 15, 2014
Sticking to her formula of situating imaginary characters in historical events (The Daring Ladies of Lowell, 2014, etc.), Alcott sends her feisty heroine to observe the filming of Gone With the Wind.At first, it looks as though Julie Crawford will be packing her bags to go back to Fort Wayne, Indiana; she's delayed as she hurries to the burning of Atlanta to deliver a message from the studio to David Selznick, and the producer fires her on the spot. Fortunately, Julie has caught the eye of assistant producer Andy Weinstein, who introduces her to a fellow Fort Wayne refugee: screwball comedy queen Carole Lombard, whose open affair with still-married GWTW star Clark Gable is making Selznick very nervous. Soon Julie is Lombard's personal assistant and having regular dinners with handsome, intense Andy. The fact that she's dating a Jew, Julie is well-aware, would appall her parents, who are already unhappy that she's dumped her high school sweetheart to pursue a career as a screenwriter. Alcott makes good use of her research to portray the turbulent GWTW shoot, Lombard's earthy personality and genuine love for the equally no-BS Gable, and Julie's introduction via Andy to the more intellectual side of Hollywood culture (a Herman Mankiewicz dinner party; a meeting with her idol, pioneering screenwriter Frances Marion). Julie and Andy's tender but bumpy affair is also nicely depicted. Consumed with anxiety for his grandparents in Nazi Berlin, furious when he confronts anti-Semitism in America, he plans to leave Hollywood's dream factory; he's supportive of Julie's ambitions but unsure that she's got the backbone to stand by him or to stand up to her parents about their relationship. Their ups and downs are slightly contrived, but Alcott's canny blend of Hollywood lore and a strong personal story is ultimately effective. Well-crafted commercial fiction displaying intelligence and nuance as Julie ponders Hollywood's dizzying fantasy/reality disconnect.

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Starred review from November 15, 2014
Alcott should entrance large audiences with her stellar historical novel, which follows fictional Indiana native Julie Crawford after she moves to Los Angeles in 1938 to become a screenwriter. Readers expecting a rehash of a familiar plotline, howeverthat of a young hopeful becoming disillusioned by the emptiness beneath Hollywood's glitzy veneerwill find something more nuanced and substantive. Working as an assistant to exuberant blonde actress Carole Lombard, who hails from her hometown, Julie gets pulled into the activity surrounding the filming of Gone with the Wind, costarring Clark Gable, the still-married man Carole loves (and vice versa). On and off the set, considerable drama unfolds; all the actors and crew are subjected to the single-minded vision of its controlling producer, David Selznick. Both Carole and diminutive brunette Vivien Leigh light up the page in their scenes, and Julie's story line holds its own alongside theirs. As she sheds her midwestern navet' and works hard on a screenplay in her free time, her romance with a Jewish assistant producer draws in themes of prejudice and hypocrisy. The briskly paced narrative captivates as it lets readers view the creation of silver-screen magic, and it's also a terrific tribute to the industry pioneers, like screenwriter Frances Marion, who helped others jump-start their dreams.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Prepub buzz about this book has been focused on how entertaining readers will find it; expect many requests.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2015

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard's passionate romance, fragile Vivien Leigh, and complicated and creative Margaret Mitchell come to life in this captivating novel set during the filming of Gone with the Wind. Alcott (The Dressmaker; The Daring Ladies of Lowell) knows how to write historical fiction, and she has an almost embarrassingly extensive wealth of subject matter here: the glamour, the backbiting, the gossip fed by columnists such as Louella Parsons, and daily crises on the set owing to controlling producer David O. Selznick. Alcott doesn't neglect the uglier side of this period: Gable is recruited by the film's African American cast members to protest the segregated bathrooms on the set (which he did by threatening to quit if it wasn't changed); anti-Semitism is rampant, and the protagonist, Julie Crawford from Fort Crawford, IN, endures blatant sexism in her quest to become a screenwriter. Her romance with handsome Jewish assistant producer Andy Weinstein, who is concerned about his relatives' safety in Europe, brings impending World War II into the picture. VERDICT Readers of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank and other biographical fiction will love this well-written and thoroughly researched look at Hollywood's glamorous and not-so-glamorous past. [See Prepub Alert, 8/22/14.]--Elizabeth Safford, Nevins Memorial Lib., Methuen, MA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014

How fun is this? Alcott, author of the New York Times best-selling The Dressmaker, has written a big, sprawling novel about the filming of Gone with the Wind, with a side trip to the boiling-over romance between its leading man, Clark Gable, and sunny Carole Lombard.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.