n
1876, 35-year-old Maryna Zalewska, Poland's brilliant, revered actress,
packs up her 14-person entourage, including husband, child, maid, and
assorted relatives and admirers, and emigrates to Anaheim, CA, determined
to shed her glittering life and disappear into the unglamorous anonymity
borne of the radical, hard-scrabble work of her commune. After a couple of
years, with the failure of the farm looming, Maryna returns to the stage
in a dazzling U.S. comeback that rockets her to renewed fame, fortune, and
smashing success across the nation and overseas. Basing her new novel on
the life of Helena Modrzejewska (stage name Helena Modjeska), Sontag uses
dense, elegant language, inventive dialog, impassioned monolog, and diary
entries to lure the reader more deeply into the fascinating historical
journey of a powerful actress charging her high-energy way through the
lives of her inner circle, leaving in her wake broken hearts, inspiration,
and a sad inner core that may be forever masked by her inability to
separate her actress side from her human one. Sontag triumphs once again
with her gift for turning history into riveting fiction (Volcano Lover).
Encourage readers to get beyond the annoyingly contrived first chapter
with its invisible observer.
n
1876, 35-year-old Maryna Zalewska, Poland's brilliant, revered actress,
packs up her 14-person entourage, including husband, child, maid, and
assorted relatives and admirers, and emigrates to Anaheim, CA, determined
to shed her glittering life and disappear into the unglamorous anonymity
borne of the radical, hard-scrabble work of her commune. After a couple of
years, with the failure of the farm looming, Maryna returns to the stage
in a dazzling U.S. comeback that rockets her to renewed fame, fortune, and
smashing success across the nation and overseas. Basing her new novel on
the life of Helena Modrzejewska (stage name Helena Modjeska), Sontag uses
dense, elegant language, inventive dialog, impassioned monolog, and diary
entries to lure the reader more deeply into the fascinating historical
journey of a powerful actress charging her high-energy way through the
lives of her inner circle, leaving in her wake broken hearts, inspiration,
and a sad inner core that may be forever masked by her inability to
separate her actress side from her human one. Sontag triumphs once again
with her gift for turning history into riveting fiction (Volcano Lover).
Encourage readers to get beyond the annoyingly contrived first chapter
with its invisible observer.
