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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra
5.0
It's Hollywood in the late 1930s, 40s. Mercury Pictures is studio that makes B-minus movies, run by Artie Feldman, a man of many toupees and little taste. But he has a big heart, and as an immigrant himself, he hires refugees from the European horror and puts them in whatever job he can squeeze them into, suitable or not.
Maria Lagana is one of those who is in the right job. She and her mother fled Italy a decade earlier after her father, an anti-Mussolini lawyer was arrested. She's Artie's right hand and the crux of her job is to get tawdry scripts by the Production Code Administration and her goal is to be a producer. Besides pushing the boundaries of good taste, some of these scripts also push scenarios that the US government is not currently embracing. That will change after December 7, 1941.
Anthony Marra is a beautiful writer, and it's a treat to see him put his talents in service of this story, another one of those World War Two tales that seem so fresh after eighty years. Maria's lover is a Chinese American classical actor now offered lots of roles as a dastardly Japanese. Pretty soon, she will be registered as an enemy alien and unable to visit her great aunts who run an Italian restaurant in another part of town, outside her seven mile travel limit. German refugees on Artie's payroll vanish to possibly become American spies. Filmmakers learn that real battle scenes never look right so it's better to stage them.
Engaging and readable, this story of reinvention and resilience was worth waiting for. Anthony Marra reveals a new side of his talent and I hope we don't have to wait another six years for another new novel. You have to love a writer who can make a B movie studio a place of courage and discovery.
Maria Lagana is one of those who is in the right job. She and her mother fled Italy a decade earlier after her father, an anti-Mussolini lawyer was arrested. She's Artie's right hand and the crux of her job is to get tawdry scripts by the Production Code Administration and her goal is to be a producer. Besides pushing the boundaries of good taste, some of these scripts also push scenarios that the US government is not currently embracing. That will change after December 7, 1941.
Anthony Marra is a beautiful writer, and it's a treat to see him put his talents in service of this story, another one of those World War Two tales that seem so fresh after eighty years. Maria's lover is a Chinese American classical actor now offered lots of roles as a dastardly Japanese. Pretty soon, she will be registered as an enemy alien and unable to visit her great aunts who run an Italian restaurant in another part of town, outside her seven mile travel limit. German refugees on Artie's payroll vanish to possibly become American spies. Filmmakers learn that real battle scenes never look right so it's better to stage them.
Engaging and readable, this story of reinvention and resilience was worth waiting for. Anthony Marra reveals a new side of his talent and I hope we don't have to wait another six years for another new novel. You have to love a writer who can make a B movie studio a place of courage and discovery.