Scan barcode
A review by rickijill
Marlene by C.W. Gortner
5.0
I enjoy historical fiction, especially historical fiction set during World War II. Marlene: A Novel of Marlene Dietrich is mesmerizing, partly due to the setting. Berlin during the 1930's was a decadent destination with cabarets that knew no limits. I don't want to rewrite what's in the book blurb, but I will say that I was shocked by Berlin's debauched subculture that shorty preceded the rise of the Third Reich. Obviously it would have been impossible for both cultures to have coexisted.
While reading this excellent novel I kept having to remind myself that this is a work of fiction. Told from Marlene's point of view, I feel as if she is narrating her story to me. I love Marlene's voice, and Gortner succeeds in convincing me that this story and all of its details and dialogue are "fact." Only the best historical fiction can achieve this, so kudos to Gortner! I got sucked into the story from the first chapter about elementary school, and I found the book very hard to put down all the way through until the book's end, the aftermath of the war in a destroyed Berlin.
Marlene is not like the other starlets of the Golden Era of film. She is gritty, political, altruistic, and brave. She is one of the first stars to sell war bonds. Her USO tour with Danny Thomas is long and fraught with danger, and I love how she records songs in both English and German used for propaganda. Her shock at finding out her sister and brother-in-law's connection to Bergen-Belsen is ironic compared to Marlene's outspoken denunciation of Hitler and the Third Reich. I found this section of the book so compelling that I did extra research and reading on my own because I wanted to know what actually happened to her in Germany after the war.
I enjoyed Marlene so much that I plan on reading more of Gortner's novels. I'm particularly interested in reading The Confessions of Catherine de Medici and Mademoiselle Chanel. I've already put them on reserve at my library!
Disclosure: I received a copy of Marlene from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
While reading this excellent novel I kept having to remind myself that this is a work of fiction. Told from Marlene's point of view, I feel as if she is narrating her story to me. I love Marlene's voice, and Gortner succeeds in convincing me that this story and all of its details and dialogue are "fact." Only the best historical fiction can achieve this, so kudos to Gortner! I got sucked into the story from the first chapter about elementary school, and I found the book very hard to put down all the way through until the book's end, the aftermath of the war in a destroyed Berlin.
Marlene is not like the other starlets of the Golden Era of film. She is gritty, political, altruistic, and brave. She is one of the first stars to sell war bonds. Her USO tour with Danny Thomas is long and fraught with danger, and I love how she records songs in both English and German used for propaganda. Her shock at finding out her sister and brother-in-law's connection to Bergen-Belsen is ironic compared to Marlene's outspoken denunciation of Hitler and the Third Reich. I found this section of the book so compelling that I did extra research and reading on my own because I wanted to know what actually happened to her in Germany after the war.
I enjoyed Marlene so much that I plan on reading more of Gortner's novels. I'm particularly interested in reading The Confessions of Catherine de Medici and Mademoiselle Chanel. I've already put them on reserve at my library!
Disclosure: I received a copy of Marlene from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.