Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Reminisicing over her past, elderly Nina Weis recalls the concealed truths behind her many years in Hollywood as behind-the-scenes film publicist and romantic involvement with not one, but two, leading stars.

BOOK REVIEW:
Nina Weiss is a Barnard junior, upper-crust and intellectual, when she spends a six-week summer internship at her uncle's Hollywood film studio in 1948. Oddly enough, untrained and inexperienced Nina outshines the jaded studio staff and management, and catches the eye of new actress Stella Kane, a Midwest "find." Stella has in tow her young, deaf sister Abbie, who is herself a handful, and rooms with Sybil Croft, an aging actress being forced out by the studio for her independent and "out of the box" viewpoints.

In 1948, the Cold War is on and the "fight against Communism" is heating up rapidly, providing a fascinating historical background to the Hollywood milieu. Already many actors and screenwriters are targeted for exclusion because of potential (or assumed) Leftist political views or actual Communist entanglements. Nina strives to walk a thin line while her attention-and emotions-are inexplicably tugged toward Stella Kane, a consummate actress and emotional vortex.

Hollywood in the post-WWII era is also virulently anti-homosexual, and certain actors-and actresses must hide their true orientations or be ejected from filmmaking and even jailed for illegal acts. Nina finds ways for her charges to live their truths beyond the scrutiny of a celebrity society which feeds on implanted stories and false facts.

Author Linda Morganstein delivers an enticing novel well-couched in Hollywood history with intriguing subplots such as Stella's deaf sister (who along with other deaf or hearing-impaired characters is penned with compassion and empathy) and the backdrop of the anti-homosexual, anti-Communist uproars of the era. Although not sexually explicit, the story is well worth reading for its understanding of the characters, the intricately plotted romances (yes, multiple romance plots here), and the accurate historical foundation.

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