THE MURDERESS ~ LAURIE NOTARO ~ REVIEW

Book for review courtesy of NetGalley ~ Little A ~ 10 / 8

Laurie Notaro's novel The Murderess tells the story of Winnie Ruth Judd, who, in 1931, murdered her two best friends and then shoved their bodies into trunks.  Ruth was attractive, but prone to bouts of mental illness. She married young to a 

W W I veteran many years her senior ; they had one child. Her husband deposited her in Phoenix, Arizona where she worked as a medical secretary. She began an affair with Jack Halloran, a well-known playboy in Phoenix.   She made friends with two young women, Anne Le Roi and Hedvig Samuelson and they also had an affair with Jack Halloran.

Was Ruth's motivation strictly jealousy, or was she in the throes of a mental health episode?  Notaro's prose is brutally honest and does not hold back in the descriptions of the state of the bodies and the gruesome nature of Judd's crime. The Murderess offers a glimpse into the psyche of a damaged young woman and the reasons she would commit such a horrible crime.

SPOOOKY LADY-TOBER : THE WRITEN-ING

 

October is about a lit lady whose work lurks in dark corners ...

Don't sugar your berries, visit old houses, or attend town traditions

"WELL THIS IS JUST A LITTLE PEYTON PLACE..."

Every author has the same dream : they sit at a typewriter and the words pour out of them. The story is cohesive without a struggle. They make a statement the world needs to hear. The world speaks back by making the book a smash success. That happened to Grace Metalious, author of Peyton Place. But literary success trapped Grace Metalious into living a life as tawdry as one of her characters. Grace Metalious died an alcoholic victim of her own fame.

Born into a life of poverty, Mary Grace de Repentingy was raised by her grandmother and mother after Grace's father deserted the family in 1934 when Grace was 10. Grace's mother held literary ambitions that never came to fruition. Grace married George Metalious, her high school sweetheart at 18. George went to college on the GI Bill to become a teacher. Grace stayed at home with their three kids and wrote, often neglecting housework and mothering. Grace had chosen a name at random from a directory of New York City literary agents - Jacques Chambrun. Previously she sent him a manuscript that received no attention. By the summer of 1955 at 30 years old, Grace Metalious would change popular literature with a pot boiler book.

Chambrun sent Grace's new manuscript, The Tree and The Blossom, to Lippincott publishing. Lippincott's reader loved the book, but editors passed. The reader mentioned the book to the head of Julian Messner books. She loved the book, but wanted to change the title. Peyton Place became the book's new moniker, to evoke the idea that the book was anchored in a town. Grace was returning home from swimming with her kids, arms full of groceries when she spotted a telegram from Chambrun.

Two days later she and Chambrun celebrated at New York City's Swanky 21 to toast Grace's book deal. A friend of Grace later noted - "Grace Metalious would never be really poor or really happy again." The publishers put the word out early about the corker of a story, creating what is now termed as buzz. The book hit the best seller list before its release date of September 24, 1956. Peyton Place sold 100,000 copies in its first month. Reviews were unkind, with one critic saying Peyton Place was literary sewage. Grace fired back if "I'm a lousy writer, then a hell of a lot of people have lousy taste."

The novel turned life in a sleepy New England hamlet into a soap opera. Characters made their lives on lies. Women had sex (and liked it!) The novel forced taboo topics of abortion, incest, alcohol addiction, and murder onto readers. Polite society would never discuss these topics publicly, but they sure would read about them privately. Peyton Place became a term for secrecy and judgment - the country music hit Harper Valley P.T.A. includes the line "Well this is just a little Peyton Place..." to expose Harper Valley's hypocrisy.

Grace was asked in nearly every interview she gave if Peyton Place was her autobiography. It wasn't, but Grace's life began to imitate her art. The money she earned allowed her to drink more than before. She and George both had affairs. Rumors and innuendo followed Grace wherever she went, like the gossip that she had shopped in the local supermarket naked underneath a mink coat. Publicity played up the housewives / mother / wife of a school teacher angle of Grace's life, but townsfolk didn't like being reminded their high school principal was married to a scandalous celebrity author. Grace and George separated after George lost his job. Their kids lost friends. Grace slipped further and further into a bottle.

(Side note - Grace once gave an interview to a young a young TV journalist named Mike Wallace. At the television station an up-and-coming young actress, the girl who announced station breaks, helped Grace with a fashion crisis. Ten years later that actress would follow in Grace's saucy, sassy literary footsteps with her own salacious scribblings, when Jacqueline Suzanne released Valley of the Dolls.  Grace Metalious stomped about in jeans and sneakers so Jacqueline Suzann could strut in couture and heels.)

As with any literary smash Hollywood bought the rights to Peyton Place and turned the novel into a film.  Fittingly the deal was signed at the Alogonquin, drinking grounds of Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley. Grace Metalious netted $250,000 for the film rights. The Metalious family traveled to Los Angeles to watch the filming. The studio shelled out for luxury accommodations, limos, and fine dining. Grace's daughter met Elvis on the set of one of his films. But that was nearly the end of Grace's commitment to Peyton Place. The film netted nine Oscar nominations but zero wins. Peyton Place then became television's first dramatic serial. Peyton Place aired three nights a week for five years.  The show netted the network $62 million, but Grace Metalious signed away the TV rights, never earning any money from the novel's television success.

Grace Metalious burned through nearly $1 million. She bought and renovated a home, bought a cadillac, fancy clothes, and took Island vacations. Grace met a D.J. named T. J. and began an affair. T. J. encouraged her outrageous spending. George burst in on the two and took photos as proof of an affair to be able to divorce grace. Grace filed for divorce, promising to fund George's Master's Degree in exchange for the illlicit pictures. Their kids went to live with George in Massachusetts. By 1960 Grace was left without a lover (T. J .split), her family, and her money.

She accepted a $165,000 advance for Return to Peyton Place, but turned in 98 pages of pages of gobbledygook that needed to be ghost written.  Return to Peyton Place and two other non-Peyton Place novels flopped. The sequel's film version did not see as much success as the original. Return to Peyton Place became a daytime soap opera, airing from 1972 to 1974. By that time Grace Metalious had been dead for nearly 10 years. She met a British journalist, John Rees, in 1963. Rees kept friends away from Grace. Grace changed her will so Rees would inherit her (now meager) estate. Upon embarking on a trip to Boston, Grace's liver gave out. Her children contested her will and discovered Rees was married and a father. He backed off his claim to Grace's estate. Her agent had stolen from Grace for the 10 years they worked together. Grace's drinking burned up the rest of the money.

The woman who literally wrote the book on small town scandal became the biggest scandal her small town had ever seen.

SOURCES :

Callahan, Michael. Peyton Place's Real Victim. Vanity Fair, 2006.

Grace Metalious. Wikipedia.

Peyton Place ~ Novel. Wikipedia.

Peyton Place ~ Film. Wikipedia.

Peyton Place ~ Television Series. Wikipedia.

FURTHER MEDIA : 

Peyton Place ~ Film Trailer

THAT'S A-LOTTA FAME

When we hear the term "child star" we think of Shirley Temple, singing and dancing, curls bouncing, dimples... dimpling. But Shirley had a predecessor from the Gold Rush era - Lotta Crabtree. Lotta Crabtree is a little remember today, but once "The Nation's Darling," she captivated theatergoers. Charlotte Mignon Crabtree was born November 7, 1847 in New York City. When her bookseller father sought his fortune in the gold rush, Lotta and her mother followed him to California and opened a boarding house. Their neighbor was famed performer Lola Montez, who encouraged Lotta's love of singing and dancing. 

Lotta began touring mining camps, her mother in tow, collecting payments of gold and coins in a steamer trunk. Lotta sang, danced, played banjo, and personified a lovable scamp. Rowena Steele, popular stage actress of the era made Lotta her protege and gave Lotta a home in her theater. When silver became the element of the day Lotta performed in Nevada mining camps. In 1864 Lotta and her mother went to New York. Lotta performed in plays like Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Old Curiosity Shop, to nation wide acclaim.

Lotta's fame continue to grow. She inspired two dances: the Lotta Polka and the Lotta Gallup. In 1875 Lotta, her mother, and the steamer trunk toured America with Lotta's own theater company. The steamer trunk was necessary as a Lotta became the highest paid actress in the country. The trunk was emptied when Lotta's mother invested her money in real estate, racehorses, and bonds. Lotta gave to several charitable organizations and built public fountains. Lotta's Fountain in San Francisco stands today. Lola and her mother traveled abroad. Lola studied languages and began painting.

After an onstage fall in 1889 Lotta retired. Her last public appearance was a 1915 for Lotta Crabtree day in San Francisco. Lotta built a house in New Jersey where she lived with her mother, two brothers, and their horses. Despite having romances Lotta never married. Lotta traveled and painted in her later years. She spent the last 15 years of her life in a hospital (which she owned.) Lotta died September 25, 1924 leaving $4 million in a trust for several charities. Once an idol of America, Lotta Crabtree is mostly forgotten, having been eclipsed by the child stars who came after her, who wouldn't have had careers if not for Lotta Crabtree.

A GOLDEN LIFE ~ GINNY KUBITZ MOYER ~ REVIEW

(Book for review courtesy of NetGalley)

Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, for She Writes Press ~ Sep 24  

In Jenny Kubitz Moyer's novel A Golden Life, Frances Healy wants a fresh start and finds it in a secretarial job with the studio head, Lawrence Merrill. When the studio wants to make a film about a Gold Rush era child performer turn serious stage actress, Frances and her boss are surprised Kitty Ridley is still alive and reluctant to have her life played out on screen. (Kitty is based on Lotta Crabtree, a real child performer during the Gold Rush.) Frances, Lawrence, and his daughter Sally travel to Napa to try and persuade Kitty to let the film be made. Frances visits her hometown of San Francisco and reckons with the past she was desperate to escape, and Lawrence realizes he needs to face up to his wife's death and be a better parent to Sally. Kitty tells her truth, not the story presented in the hack biography. 

The novel is based around the idea that you can't change or deny the past ; your past is what defines you and helps spur you to change for the better. The characters are likable and the story is believable and relatable. Golden Age Hollywood novels with a dual historical perspective are usually set in a modern era with the golden age as the past. This novel uses the golden age as the present setting, with Kitty's Gold Rush days and pre Hollywood stage time as the past. We often forget there was entertainment before film. A Golden Life is a meditative novel about who we are, and who we can become.

THE BOOKLOVER'S LIBRARY ~ MADELINE MARTIN ~ REVIEW

  

Book For Review Courtesy of Netgalley ~ Source Books Landmark 

Emma, the heroine of The Booklover's Library was left alone after her father's bookstore burned down. She quickly married and had a child, only to be widowed shortly thereafter. A single mother, Emma needs a job to take care of herself and her daughter Olivia. She gets a job at Boots in their book department. She describes what most readers would deem as Book Lovers heaven :  "the library transported its subscribers to a place of cozy comfort with large stained glass windows that overlooked the street below, plush rugs underfoot, and the lingering perfume of freshly cut flowers from the small bouquets in elegant glass vases through the open space. Then of course there were the books meet shelves perfectly arranged pristine from Emma's vantage point..."

But as much as the novel is about the love of books, it is more about the love of a mother and a daughter. Emma's daughter Olivia has been billeted to the English countryside twice. First the woman who took her in became unable to care for her, and then she stayed with an unkind couple. Emma faces the loss of her daughter bravely, while knowing that the brunt of the war can hit them any second. The Booklover's Library tells the story of what it was like for women to lose their children due to billiting, and for children to be away from their homes, which is not often discussed in World War II novels. Emma's bravery and love of her child is a story that resonates even today.

THE MAJESTIC SISTERS ~ JESSICA ILSE ~ REVIEW

 

   

(Book for review courtesy of NetGalley ~ Nimbus Publishing)

Jessica Ilse's The Majestic Sisters tell us the story of sisters Melly and Missy Calvert who, dancing at the Majestic Theater, captured the hearts of their Halifax, Nova Scotia hometown in the 1930s. When Melly flees to Atlanta to catch her big break at the Gone With the Wind premiere, Missy is left behind. In 1963 Melly receives word that the Majestic Theater will close for good, putting an end to the movie magic that propelled Melly to stardom. Melly returns to Halifax determined to save the theater and must reconcile with Missy. Ilse frames Missy and Melly's stories with that of Missy's daughters - Leonie, ambitious like Melly, and Birdie, who is more content with a quiet life - like Missy. The Majestic Sisters is story of sisters, and how the one you're closest to can hurt you the most, and a story of the glitz and glamour of Old Hollywood, The Majestic Sisters proves sometimes you can, and need to, go home and need to, go home again.