AUDIO

The Girls in the Picture

by Melanie Benjamin
13 CDs. 16:30 hrs. Books on Tape. Jan. 2018. ISBN 9780451484659. $50. digital download. F
COPY ISBN
Benjamin (The Swans of Fifth Avenue) imagines the friendship of scenarist and later screenwriter Frances Marion with silent screen star Mary Pickford, America's Sweetheart. Alternating chapters tell of their meeting and how they navigate the tumultuous world of the silent movies—"flickers"—as women. Cameos from such notables as Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Rudolph Valentino, and Lillian Gish add historic zest to a tale that plumbs the cost of fame and the price of image. Actress Kimberly Farr imbues the voices of Marion and Pickford with texture and color. The Marion chapters are in first person and seem stronger than do those featuring Pickford, which are in third person. Farr uses just the right combination of steel and sweetness to make Pickford believable.
VERDICT Recommended for fans of historic fiction and early Hollywood. ["This engrossing and rewarding read provides the same mixture of well-researched plot and fascinating characters who have made Benjamin's previous novels so outstanding": LJ 9/1/17 starred review of the Delacorte hc.]
Reviewed by David Faucheux, Lafayette, LA , Mar 01, 2018
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