Customer Reviews

Cheat and Charmer: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

with deeply nuanced characters who are not espcially likeable. The thing I loved about this book is that there are no easy answers. All of these characters make choices that have long reaching results. If you believe that ethics are situational; that choices are neither morally good or bad (in and of themselves), this book will make you pause. The author does an outstanding job of showing the emotional consequences of seemingly simple choices. The history of LA in the 50s (I lived it), the blacklist and the movie business all ring true. This is one of the best books I have read this year. I literally read it in a 24 hour period and was sad to see it end.

Jaqueline Susann has met her match! Reading books like this is one of those guilty pleasures that I have to confess to. And Frank knows her stuff... I felt that this was probably a roman a clef, but even without the clef in hand, the book is hugely entertaining (though it does bog down just a bit by the time you get to page 400). And the characters are, for the most part, so thoroughly unsympathetic that you can read about the disasters that befall them with perfect equanimity.

This is possibly the best book I've read in many years. It carried me into the lives of Dinah and Jake to the point that I felt like I was living with them and feeling their laughter and pain. Elizabeth Frank may well be one of the best writers of our time. Although it took place in the 50' it is truly a timeless work of art. Bravo and Encore!!!

That Elizabeth Frank is screenwriter-novleist is more than evident in this sumptuous period piece on 1950's Hollywood's in its darkest hour. With vivid, crystalline detail, Frank ushers us right inside the hallowed inner circles of Hollywood's elite as they cope with the consequences of the poison-pen ethos of McCarthyist Washington, parrying its wrath in order to keep their careers, dignity, families and homes intact and move forward with their lives. Frank's snappy storytelling doesn't miss a beat as she jet-sets us from the deal-making pool parties of Southern California, to hedonistic ex-pats basking in sunny Southern France, to the rehearsal halls of New York and back again, all while shattering the glass house inhabited by Dinah and Jake Lasker en famille, and others, with consummate skill. Cheat and Charmer's best enjoyed on the beach or on the porch where you can savor every nostalgic detail of life in the fifties and feel completely transported to another time and place. This one deserves an encore!

Almost finished reading this book and it was a real page turner! Although it takes place in the 50's, I did not really have the feeling I get with most historial fiction. There were few references to current events, fashions, etc, that would give the reader the sense of that time frame. This is the only drawback to the novel and if you are a historical fiction fan (as I am) you might be a little disappointed. For that reason I gave the book four stars instead of five. Otherwise, it turned out to be a really great story!

After reading some glowing published reviews of this book, I got the idea that the story focuses on participants in the HUAC hearings of the 1950s. The first third or so of the book does just that, exploring how the heroine, Dinah, is affected by a lie. However, the plot doesn't end there--Frank is so skilled at creating believable, complex characters that she seemed unable to stop them from continuing to tell their stories even after her points about HUAC were made. By the time I got to the end, I was wondering what exactly was the main purpose of the book. The author apparently could have followed the characters until each of their deaths, and the novel ends up as a sprawling portrait of a disturbed family, rather than the meditation on integrity and political ideas that it starts out to be.

The characters are generally well-rounded and believable, and Frank includes memorable personal details in even the minor figures. Characters who might have come across as merely villainous are more thoughtfully explored here. For example, Jake Lasker, a Hollywood writer and grossly philandering husband, might have been portrayed as the standard piggish cheater. But Frank makes him by turns horrible and sympathetic: brutal to his son, yet endearing in his aspiration to write Clifford-Odets-style plays that glorify his working-class roots.

A weaker character, in my opinion, is Veevie, the heroine's sister. Because Veevie is incredibly beautiful, she is loved by all who meet her, leaving her sister feeling in the shadows. But Veevie is never in the least likable to the reader, who cannot see her; she is pathologically self-involved. It seemed implausible to me that other characters in the story wouldn't eventually realize this, as well. Yet much of the book is concerned with the relative status of the two women, with Veevie usually coming out on top in the eyes of the other characters, but never in the eyes of the reader. Frank seems overly concerned that the reader too might disloyally prefer the better-looking woman, so she rarely lets Veevie appear sympathetic. And the meditation on beauty and status feels undeveloped--the reader just has to sit by in frustration as Dinah is treated unfairly by most people around her, and rarely fights back.

Despite all these issues, I am in awe of Frank's writing talent. I just hope her next book has a tighter focus.

This book is both hilarious, moving, sad and satirical. Elizabeth Frank is an amazing story teller like the early Phillip Roth and sometimes like IB Singer. The characters in this book are conflicted, ambitious eccentric citizens of Hollywood. Who new that such complexity lies in the hearts and minds of the residents of Beverly Hills. The blacklist of 1950s America turns the life of this particular family, the Laskers, into chaos. The characters are fully alive with humor and broken hearts. The philandering husband, Jake can't resist sexual liasons and pastrami sandwiches in the middle of the night. Their kids Lorna and Peter remind me of Scout and Gem in 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' learning all about growing up, not among the poor and opressed, but among loneliness, neglect and the painful criticism of grown-ups. They have no Atticus Finch. But they have an amazing and imperfect mother, Dinah, who does testify before the HUAC to save her family while she is still able to demonstrate tremendous integrity in life. Dinah's rivalry with her gorgeous sister, Veevee grows more complicated and divisive as bothwomen grow older looking back at the folly of their former political involvement with 'The Party.' There are other great charcters and details in this book that one can only know as a reader. It is a beautifully observed story of a certain time and place. AM Weiss

Entirely involving, entertaining and nuanced (that's the new adjective, right?) novel about Hollywood (woo-hoo) during the HUAC witchhunt. Some might call this book a soap-opera but, would that be so bad? Most everything the revered Faulkner wrote is not only soap opera but, gasp, Southern Gothic Soap Opera. LOVED this book which brings back to public consciousness a black period for the U.S. and for democracy and discusses it with a grey palette. Wonderful, exquisite, consuming reading. Well written, with very knowing eye and irony; it's a DO-NOT-MISS-BOOK!

I bought this book because the cover looked intriguing -- very F. Scott Fitzgerald. As with The Great Gatsby, I was not disappointed, though for very different reasons. I immediately was drawn into this world of secret Communist gatherings and flashy Hollywood soirees. The characters were definitely memorable, though not always likable. In fact, I found myself wanting to learn more about them, even those I believed them to be morally repugnant. Elizabeth Frank is a wonderful storyteller. I'd read anything else she'd write! I highly recommend this book!

Elizabeth Frank is a superb writer. Yes, the plot lines are a little soap opera like, as other reviewers mentioned, but that only highlights Frank's ability to turn predictable events into fascinating commentary on adult life. Her insights are fresh and her details delicious. I was so sad to see this novel end. It took twenty five years to write - I'll be too old to read her next novel! I'm tired of Hollywood stories and yet I found Cheat and Charmer to be a true star.