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A review by donnerbella
Delayed Rays of a Star by Amanda Lee Koe
5.0
Wow.
in 1928 someone takes a picture of Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Leni Riefenstahl at the Berlin Filmball.
From there, the novel tracks the lives of those three iconic Women, their interconnected moments, the divergence of their paths, their relationships to each other, to hollywood and the world. Jumping between decades, continents and points of view, this is a masterclass in fictionalized biography storytelling that I cut not put down.
Especially as someone from Germany who never quite connected with Dietrich and just ignored Riefenstahl outright, this novel brought their unique perspectives of themselves to the forefront in a way I did not foresee.
Almost by way of allegory there are side-characters whose stories are told, and maybe a little too dramatized, but even they seem to be a part of this stream, of a momentum propelled by dreams, ambitions and longing.
A marvelous and surprisingly timely book, because the forces that shaped the lives of Marlene, Leni and Anna May are more present than ever.
in 1928 someone takes a picture of Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Leni Riefenstahl at the Berlin Filmball.
From there, the novel tracks the lives of those three iconic Women, their interconnected moments, the divergence of their paths, their relationships to each other, to hollywood and the world. Jumping between decades, continents and points of view, this is a masterclass in fictionalized biography storytelling that I cut not put down.
Especially as someone from Germany who never quite connected with Dietrich and just ignored Riefenstahl outright, this novel brought their unique perspectives of themselves to the forefront in a way I did not foresee.
Almost by way of allegory there are side-characters whose stories are told, and maybe a little too dramatized, but even they seem to be a part of this stream, of a momentum propelled by dreams, ambitions and longing.
A marvelous and surprisingly timely book, because the forces that shaped the lives of Marlene, Leni and Anna May are more present than ever.