Martha Southgate

probably between 3.75 and 4 stars. this was unusual (in a good way) in the telling of the story. she starts out in present day and then goes backwards in time, following 3 generations of women in this family, until she jumps back to the present again. i really enjoyed angela's story, and then mildred's story. it took me longer to get into tamara's story - partly i think it's because this was sometimes told in first person whereas i think the rest of the book was in third person - but once i did, i was in.

this in spite of having never seen even one of the many, many movies mentioned in this book (oh! not true! citizen cane was mentioned in passing and i have seen most of that one.) or known of the actors talked about. it was an interesting look into los angeles culture and what it was like to try to make it in the movies. but more than that it was so nice to read a book full of women of color (flawed though they are), strong in their own ways (again, flawed as they were), and i was especially pleasantly surprised to find a queer element to it.

this is well-written, but nothing super lyrical, until she hits you with a sentence that just makes you sit back and savor it for a minute. i was moved by so many different things in reading this book.

quote from wilt chamberlain: "Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing."… (mehr)