Scan barcode
A review by speelingmistake
Marlene by C.W. Gortner
3.0
The first half of the book absolutely glows. The characters are clear, the world they live in of Weimar times and the cabarets is compelling. But once Marlene heads for Hollywood it feels a lot more like a catalogue of names and movies completed without much insight into them and they have little impact on the story other than things for Marlene to do for a page or two.
The story of her USO time is much more exciting and her reunion with her sister was interesting. I would have preferred the book to have ended at Mutti's death. That was a much more powerful ending than the one we actually got.
I would have liked this to be more about the relationships between mothers and daughters. The adversarial relationship between Marlene and her mother and then the fractured relationship of Marlene and her daughter would have been a much more interesting aspect of Marlene's life to explore in the second half of the book.
The story of her USO time is much more exciting and her reunion with her sister was interesting. I would have preferred the book to have ended at Mutti's death. That was a much more powerful ending than the one we actually got.
I would have liked this to be more about the relationships between mothers and daughters. The adversarial relationship between Marlene and her mother and then the fractured relationship of Marlene and her daughter would have been a much more interesting aspect of Marlene's life to explore in the second half of the book.