A GOLDEN LIFE

Moyer offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Golden Age of Hollywood in this historical novel.

It’s 1938, and Frances Healey has vowed to pursue an “interesting” career, so she doesn’t hesitate to accept a job at VistaGlen Studios in Hollywood. Frances possesses the qualities of a successful office worker: She’s discreet, witty, and extremely observant. But Frances finds it difficult to follow all the rules she learned in secretarial school when she becomes drawn to her new employer, movie producer and widower Lawrence Merrill. (“There was a line to his cheek and a downward curve to his mouth that was somehow appealing. It was disconcerting to discover this. She would much rather work for an ugly man.”) She transgresses by sharing details of her private life and involving him in her family drama. The pair grow even closer while on a business trip to Napa Valley, trying to save his latest film from the scrap heap. Frances is also challenged by the prickly women in Lawrence’s life: his precocious and sensitive 13-year-old daughter, Sally; his obnoxious and damaged starlet girlfriend, Belinda Vail; and the opinionated and surprisingly still-alive subject of his new biopic project, Kitty Ridley. The author captures 1930s California with meticulous detail and has masterfully created characters with depth and authenticity. She accomplishes this partly by using simple actions to portray complex personalities: Sally uses a fake English accent when she wants attention; Belinda wears lily-of-the-valley-scented perfume because it symbolizes purity; Kitty wears a turban to maintain a sense of elegance. Frances is clearly the protagonist, but few characters in this novel merely serve as foils; Moyer treats them all with respect and allows them arcs of their own. She also paces the story very well—while the stakes seem low (does it really matter whether or not this particular film is made?), the narrative thrums with suspense. The snappy dialogue both reveals character traits and furthers the plot.

A delightful human drama about accepting the past and forging a future in 1930s Tinseltown.