The Fiction Writer

The Fiction Writer by Jullian Cantor 304 pages

 

Sometimes you just shouldn’t mess with the original. Olivia Fitzgerald’s first novel was a massive success. Her second, a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca,” (titled “Becky”) was not. It flopped. Big time. “Last night I dreamt I went to Malibu again” just doesn’t have the same sinister overtones as the original sentence, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

 

When I read author Cantor’s first line, I almost put it down. Then I remembered that this story is about a contemporary re-telling, and a re-telling itself, of du Maurier’s classic novel. With that in mind, I plunged ahead.

 

Olivia’s having a bad year. “Becky” was a disaster, her boyfriend of nine years dumped her, and she has no clue what her next book will be about, if anything. Even her agent doesn’t want to talk with her. But he does call with a lucrative ghost-writing offer.

 

“Henry ‘Ash’ Asherwood, a reclusive mega billionaire, twice named People’s Sexiest Man Alive,” wants to hire her, for $50,000, to ghost-write a book for him. He simply adored “Becky.
It seems, according to Ash, that there is a connection between du Maurier and his grandmother and a salacious claim. He insists that Daphne stole his grandmother’s manuscript and published it, the manuscript that became known as “Rebecca.”

 

At first, Olivia doesn’t want the gig, but her curiosity gets the best of her, and she hops on a plane for California. When she arrives in the land of the rich, famous, and beautiful, she is treated like royalty, but Ash never seems to want to get to work on the book. First, he claims the story and proof are in his grandmother’s journals, which he has sent out to be translated from their original French.

 

That is the first lie that Ash tells her about the journals. Again, Olivia’s curiosity gets the best of her, and she starts researching Ash’s grandmother and wives. She cannot find a trace of them anywhere online.

 

Sometimes it is hard to keep up with what is happening, and the people in Ash’s life. The housekeeper was also a bridesmaid from his marriage to Angelica; the discovery of Rose, the third Mrs. Ashwood; the fire at Malibu Lake, eerily reminiscent of the fire at Manderley. And much more.

 

Taut, tense, and creepy, “The Fiction Writer” is a perfect read for a stormy afternoon. The Fiction Writer gets 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Personal Librarian

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray 341 pages

 I love historical fiction. It teaches me things I never knew, and it sends me down rabbit holes, searching for more information. Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray’s new novel did those two things and more.

Belle Marion Greener is the daughter of Richard T. Greener, the first man to graduate from Harvard, and Genevieve Fleet Greener. The family left Washington, D. C. to escape the racial tensions that had been growing since the end of the Civil War for New York. There Genevieve decided that she and her children---Belle, her brother, and two sisters---would “pass.”  Mr. Greener, an activist, refused and left the family.

The family struggled, until Belle got a job as the personal librarian to financier J. P. Morgan. Belle knew that Morgan would never hire a Black woman, so she changed her name to Belle da Costa Greene, a woman of Portuguese decent, which explained her ‘dusty” complexion. Her job was to help Morgan build the most extensive library of rare books and manuscripts, antiquities and the finest art collection in the world.  

Taking place in the early 1900s, this novel is about the guilt that Belle carried; terrified that someone would discover her secret. After goggling images of her, I could understand why she was so scared.  But the book is also about how a hard working young woman became one of the most powerful and influential women in the art world. She was able to travel alone in New York and in Europe.

I had a little trouble with the first third of the novel as rare works that I had never heard of made me feel rather stupid. But Belle’s story is one of the most interesting period pieces I have read.

Another interesting tidbit on this novel is the collaboration of the white Marie Benedict and the Black Victoria Christopher Murray. Personally, I could not tell which section of the novel each writer championed, but the two together created a deep, lush narrative that I found irresistible.

 “The Personal Librarian” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.