Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures

Awful book. Boring, repetitive writing.......little plot.......waste of time.

Well-written by an author especially skilled in short-story telling. There is often more telling than showing in this book, but the writing is often vivid and observant. Unfortunately, Laura Lamont feels as if she's just been one of the very lucky and rare individuals in Hollywood's golden era to be spotted by studio mogul Irving Green (a knock off Irving Thalberg, it seemed) and made into a movie star by dying her hair and changing her name from Elsa to Laura. She didn't do much of anything else to deserve - or win - her fame and fortune. She's often a victim of circumstance including her fame, the Acadamy Award bestowed upon her, her motherhood, her two marriages, etc. She often says "Oh" or "Hi, sweetie", but disappointingly not much more. I don't believe she would have left her family behind in the midwest only to let 10 years pass before they get graciously flown to LA for her Academy Award nomination to meet the children she had with her first husband. Worse, at this point her mother is mad at her for marrying a man of the Jewish faith? I really thought she'd be ticked off for keeping her grandbabies away from her all the years Laura literally could have had the "studio" do anything for her including fly her family out to her or vice versa. I almost expected the book to turn out like "A Star is Born" because the main character starts off nearly the same way as Esther Blodgett (a/k/a Vicki Lester). Though, the Door County scenes in the beginning of the book are some of my favorites.The story will take you in and transport you to another place and time, and do so in a refreshing 3rd person voice.

I received this book from Early Reviewers. I like the time period, so I saved this book until I had time to read it at leisure. There are some good things about it; Old Hollywood is a fascinating setting and Laura an interesting character. Overall, though, I wanted it to be a little more engrossing. There was something curiously flat about it, but not everyone would mind that as the story itslef was good.

What a great read. The author grew up in Wisconsin, went to grad school at UW Madison, and now lives in New York. I heard her speak at the Wisconsin Book Festival this fall, but I had already read reviews of the book elsewhere. A young girl grows up in Door County, Wisconsin, where her family runs a playhouse. After a family tragedy, she later meets and marries one of the actors, and they head out to California on a bus. And that's just the beginning! She has such adventures in the movie industry, raises a family, faces happiness and sorrow, and learns about the ups and downs of a career in movies. And about family.

From a summer playhouse theatre on a Wisconsin farm to an award-winning star, this novel is an intoxicating blend of the siren's song of the stage and the dreams of a little girl. Encompassing the life of Elsa Emerson over a period of close to fifty years beginning in 1929, this piece is less to do with star-struck wannabees and drug-addled has-beens but more to do with love of family and love of acting as Elsa becomes Laura Lamont. Several tragedies play out that propel Laura to become what she has always dreamed of, an actress. She marries one of the young actors performing at the summer theatre her father directs, and runs away to Hollywood with him. But she is always haunted with the memory of her sister Hildy, a sister whose dream Laura often feels she is living.Laura's depth of soul is what brings her to fame as she portrays her characters. The title of the book I felt refers to the very descriptive telling of the story...a story told in word pictures. An upsetting incident with her family when she wins the Oscar leaves Laura/Elsa split, grieving and feeling a sense of betrayal to her family, especially to the memory of her dead sister. Laura is not quite the usual film star. Family means every bit as much to her as her career. She loves her children, her husband and her Wisconsin family but her mother comes just short of disowning her. Laura owes a large percentage of her successful career to her second husband, the director of her movies, but this is a good, honest and loving relationship, no shoddy affair, and Irving treats Laura's two girls as his own. When Laura bears him a son, the family is complete.Emma Straub has plumbed the depths of Hollywood, TV and stage scenarios. From black and white to full color and 3-D, this is the 'Golden Age of Hollywood.' She explores how the innards of Hollywood work, how the directors achieve the best they can out of their actors, and how the actors immerse themselves into their characters. There is glamour in the book, but more, there is true life with all its ups and downs, the good, the bad, the true actors and the ones on the fringes of acceptance. It is certainly not all joy and lightness, especially for Laura and Irving, because of his delicate health. This book is a roller-coaster of personalities, despair, deep emotions of all kinds. This character-driven story is probably a truer view of the world of acting and movies than most, because it gets right into the heart of that world.

Laura Lamont was born Elsa Emerson in Door County, Wisconsin. She finds an escape in acting at the Cherry County Playhouse, owned by her family, after tragedy strikes her family. But soon she realizes that she needs an even greater escape, boarding a bus to Hollywood. The story starts a bit slowly, but soon I became immersed in Laura's life as a Hollywood actress and in the struggles that she faces in blending her new life and her old. There are moments in this book when Laura jumps off the page, especially in times of grief. It had been a while since I read a book about an entire life, and Straub does a nice job of providing close-ups within the long span of Laura's life.

A sweeping look into the "Golden Age of Hollywood," Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures captures the transformation of small-town girl into top starlet of American cinema. I appreciate how this author writes; things that shouldn't come as surprises somehow do. It's almost as if Straub anticipates the pre-formed expectations of the reader and swoops onto the idea before the expectation is fully formed. One thing that bothered me - the protagonist's rise to fame seemed a little too easy. Sure there were bumps in the road, but her stardom definitely couldn't be described as hard-won. Besides this minor distraction, however, it was a great read.

I love books about old time Hollywood so this book seemed right up my alley. Unfortunately, there wasn't nearly enough old time Hollywood story to it. The part of the story where Laura is actually making movies is very short and does not delve into the culture or period at all. Most of the book is about Laura coming to terms with what she perceives at her loss of identity from changing her name, her hair color, and becoming an actress. It wasn't necessarily a bad read, it just did not live up to expectations at all.

The first chapter really pulled me in, but once Elsa got to Hollywood and became Laura Lamont, I honestly got bored. I would have preferred to have more family genre than a look at all of her life, which included some characters that seemed to serve no purpose - I know real life is like that, but I prefer fiction to have more cohesion.

While I understand that it was the point of the book to tell a life story, I think the way it was done made the pace jumpy and the characters hard to identify with. Speeding through her life, trying to touch on every episode, made it so there wasn't enough time to really connect and sympathize. Interesting perspective, interesting era, but ultimately not executed well.

Elsa Emerson grows up in small town Wisconsin, in a household that is also the local little theater. Every summer, young actors come and stay with the family and put on shows in the converted barn, inspiring a love of show business in the two younger sisters. She makes her escape from Door County by marrying an aspiring actor who is heading for Hollywood, a move that becomes a misery to her but also the vehicle to the life she wants. When she meets studio manager Irving Green, he turns out to be the answer to her dreams, both personal and professional. He changes her from blonde Elsa to brunette Laura Lamont. For awhile, her life is perfect. But life doesn’t offer nicely packaged happy endings like movies do. Laura’s life takes a lot of twists and turns before it’s done. The book is interesting; the second section is set during the days of the Hollywood studio system, where the studio took over every aspect of the actor’s life. Thinly disguised celebrities fill the book; Irving Green is obviously Irving Thalberg (although Laura is not Norma Shearer); Laura’s best friend is Lucille Ball; Jack Warner, Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland also appear, all with fictitious names. A parallel thread to Laura’s life is the changes that take place in Hollywood through the decades. “Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures” isn’t Emma Straub’s first book, but it is her first novel. As such, it shows some deficits. Laura- all the characters, in fact- come off rather two dimensional, although perhaps that is intentional- pictures are, after all, two dimensional. But I never felt any real attachment to Laura. She’s not unpleasant in any way, but neither is she magnetic. I wanted to love this novel- old Hollywood is an interest of mine- but while I liked it, I did not love it.

A sweeping look into the "Golden Age of Hollywood," Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures captures the transformation of small-town girl into top starlet of American cinema. I appreciate how this author writes; things that shouldn't come as surprises somehow do. It's almost as if Straub anticipates the pre-formed expectations of the reader and swoops onto the idea before the expectation is fully formed. One thing that bothered me - the protagonist's rise to fame seemed a little too easy. Sure there were bumps in the road, but her stardom definitely couldn't be described as hard-won. Besides this minor distraction, however, it was a great read.

Slight, disappointing, vapid and uninteresting protagonist.

Nice book with a great character, maybe a bit cliché toward the end but a very nice tour of the Old Hollywood, and a beautiful love story

Digital audiobook narrated by Molly RingwoldFrom the book jacket: An enchanting debut novel about a small-town midwestern girl who finds fame as a sensational movie star during Holllywood’s golden age, this work is also a story of family, ambition, and sacrifice. My reactionsI get a certain little kick out of reading a book set in my backyard, and this one begins in idyllic Door County Wisconsin. Add a family tradition of theatre – Elsa, is the youngest of three daughters born to the owner/operators of the Cherry County Playhouse – and the romance of Hollywood’s golden age, and I was captured by the book jacket’s promise. I wasn’t expecting great literature, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a rags-to-riches, poor-girl-marries-powerful-executive, money-can’t-buy-happiness story that would have easily been produced by the studio-system of Hollywood in the 1930s and ‘40s. Other than Elsa/Laura, I thought the characters lacked development. Still, it was a quick read and although I found the plot somewhat predictable, I was content to go along for the ride. Molly Ringwold does a find job narrating the audiobook. She has good pacing, and she’s sufficiently accomplished as an actress to breath life into the characters.

Wheee! This is my first Goodreads "First Reads" giveaway win!

CAUTION: The review below contains some mild spoilers.

August 12, 2012
Though I'm not quite halfway through the book, I have much to say, so I'll start my comments here. This is hard for me, because I really want to like this book, and I feel that Emma Straub is an author I want to encourage, but I have some issues with the novel so far.

For me, the book is a little slow to get going. I would have started the book with the second chapter, when Elsa/Laura arrives in Hollywood, with the preceding material either in a shorter introductory piece or presented as a flashback. The story wouldn't lose much if it came in on Elsa/Laura's relationship with her first husband mid-stream. Elsa/Laura's relationships in general are not particularly well drawn, and her relationship with her first husband seems like a slight plot device. More could be done with it, but if Gordon's role is merely to get her out of Wisconsin and father her first two children, the reader doesn't miss much if we meet him as they're arriving in California.

Few characters feel fleshed out, and dialogue is scant. One potentially interesting character, Josephine, says almost nothing and doesn't write letters to Laura after Laura moves to Hollywood. While this seems like a part of Josephine's character, it also feels like a hole--like maybe it's convenient to maintain her silence because the author isn't able to give her words.

I've always been interested in early Hollywood and the star/studio system, and over the years I've read biographies of Garbo, Louise Brooks, Bette Davis, and screenwriter Frances Marion. Each of these biographies reveals a lot about the industry from its beginnings through mid-century, and each illustrates how much hard work and personal sacrifice it took for these women to advance their careers. Many women in the film industry during this era did marry and have children, but--unless they were already major stars, and even sometimes if they were well established--in many cases those events marked the end of their careers. Few aspiring actresses arrived in Hollywood already married, and even fewer were able to launch their careers when they already had young children. That Laura's career starts out this way is very unusual, and I think it's enough of an oddity that more needs to be made of it. The reader is told that Laura loves acting, that it's who she is, but we don't really see it. Laura's success seems to fall into her lap; it doesn't seem like the result of years of single-minded effort. At one point Laura (or is it the author?) suggests that “Every actor and actress on the lot would have worked for free,” but established stars who devoted their lives to working in films had no intention of doing so for free (see Davis, Garbo, and others).

The fantasy of just somehow becoming a major star in Hollywood and living a glamorous life dominates the early part of the book. Descriptive passages are devoted to the trappings of this glamorous life--clothes, cars, houses.

This is not exactly a historical novel with fastidious attention to historical accuracy, and that's okay, but the number of things that feel historically questionable does grate after a while. Some examples: 1) For Gordon to complain about his first contract makes him (or perhaps the author?) seem naïve. To even get a first contract, even as a bit player, was a big deal. The terms of his contract sound like pretty standard studio fare for the time. An actor was under a studio’s control almost as sports stars today are under a team’s control—except perhaps moreso because of the demands a studio could make on an actor’s personal life choices. 2) At the Academy Awards banquet, Laura notes that her father has seen each of the six films she’s made. If Laura went under contract in 1939, it’s unlikely that she would have made only six films in nine years. If Laura receives special treatment because she’s married to a studio head, it’s worth making that point. That Laura wins the Oscar the first time she’s nominated, with the reader getting very little genuine evidence of Laura’s supposed acting abilities, is just another of the parts of this book that feels like pure Hollywood fantasy.

Some characters in the book echo real Hollywood figures. Irving Greene is not-so-loosely based on Irving Thalberg, one of the studio heads at MGM in the 20s and 30s. Like Thalberg, Greene is young and frail. Thalberg had heart problems and other health problems, and by the age of 21 he was a high-level executive at a major studio. Like Thalberg, Greene eschews screen credit. Thalberg partnered at MGM with Louis B. Mayer; Greene works with Louis Gardner. Like Greene, Thalberg married and to some degree shepherded the career of a successful actress—in Thalberg’s case, actress Norma Shearer. I haven’t reached this point in the book yet, but I have a strong suspicion that, like Thalberg, Greene will die fairly young, leaving a widow and children. [EDIT and SPOILER: Yep.]

The book gains some ground when Laura’s family finally comes to visit. When this happens, we're reminded that all is not fantasy, that there's a darker side to all this and perhaps some larger meaning. Still, her parents’ attitudes and motivations are too opaque, too lacking in nuance. There’s potential in this side of the story, and perhaps as the book progresses it will improve by placing more focus on and better developing these relationships.

I suspect Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures might work for some readers a little like Rules of Civility does in that many people will read it and enjoy it because of the world the characters inhabit. A good chunk of that enjoyment will rise out of readers' own existing ideas and fantasies about the world in which they believe the story is set. There's some value in that, but the book itself is flawed.

Of course, my overall opinion may still change in the next 100 pages!

August 25, 2012

Wow. It's taken so much longer than it should have to read this book. I've got to be honest: It's not that it's slow-moving plot-wise, nor is it intellectually challenging. It just never captured my imagination. I don't feel much for any of these characters, despite what they may have gone through. Too much of the book feels cliché. There's a lot of fairly plain repetition about how much Laura misses her second husband, but she hooks up with him so quickly to begin with and there's so little shape and color to their relationship that's it hard to see what was so wonderful about it, or to care. Alas, there are even more characters in the second half of the book who are pretty obviously modeled after real Hollywood notables. That's not necessarily a problem, but in this book it just feels kind of lazy. In the second half of the book, the author uses characters along the lines of Lucille Ball (she may actually show up earlier--can't remember exactly), a Barbara Eden/Elizabeth Montgomery type, and even Edna straight out of The Incredibles (who, in that movie, is herself modeled after a real person, but in a much more effective way--besides, that's a cartoon). It's like the author doesn't have to describe these characters, because once we have a thumbnail, they're so familiar to us that we already know all about them--on the surface. Unfortunately, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures rarely delves much, with any degree of insight or subtlety, beneath that surface with respect to any characters or situations. The book doesn't add enough substance to the collage of cliches, gushing vague descriptions of the material stuff of Hollywood (and there's not even that much of that), references to real people, and telling-without-showing to give the story it's own value.

Elsa Emerson grows up in small town Wisconsin, in a household that is also the local little theater. Every summer, young actors come and stay with the family and put on shows in the converted barn, inspiring a love of show business in the two younger sisters. She makes her escape from Door County by marrying an aspiring actor who is heading for Hollywood, a move that becomes a misery to her but also the vehicle to the life she wants. When she meets studio manager Irving Green, he turns out to be the answer to her dreams, both personal and professional. He changes her from blonde Elsa to brunette Laura Lamont. For awhile, her life is perfect. But life doesn’t offer nicely packaged happy endings like movies do. Laura’s life takes a lot of twists and turns before it’s done. The book is interesting; the second section is set during the days of the Hollywood studio system, where the studio took over every aspect of the actor’s life. Thinly disguised celebrities fill the book; Irving Green is obviously Irving Thalberg (although Laura is not Norma Shearer); Laura’s best friend is Lucille Ball; Jack Warner, Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland also appear, all with fictitious names. A parallel thread to Laura’s life is the changes that take place in Hollywood through the decades. “Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures” isn’t Emma Straub’s first book, but it is her first novel. As such, it shows some deficits. Laura- all the characters, in fact- come off rather two dimensional, although perhaps that is intentional- pictures are, after all, two dimensional. But I never felt any real attachment to Laura. She’s not unpleasant in any way, but neither is she magnetic. I wanted to love this novel- old Hollywood is an interest of mine- but while I liked it, I did not love it.

This book was missing something. I don't know exactly what but it was. Laura/Elsa's character was bland and it felt like her life was happening to her and she wasn't doing anything. She was very passive.

Pretty page-turney, and a makeover story is always enjoyable, but after a while Laura Lamont needed to DO SOMETHING ALREADY. I get that life is hard, but eventually you gotta make it happen, lady!
Also, having a tragedy happen to a character is not the same as them actually having a personality.

After reading Straub's short story collection a few weeks ago, I was even more excited to read her novel.I'm a fan of historical fiction and I enjoy reading about Hollywood...enter this wonderful story about Laura Lamont (not a real person BTW). While Laura Lamont wasn't real...I'm sure her story was definitely the truth for some. We follow Laura's life from her childhood -- when she was Elsa -- until the end of her career as a struggling older actress. I'm curious if Straub took pieces of lives and merged them into Laura or if there was one particular star she had in mind. Either way, it's a wonderful look into the rise and fall of celebrity life. It really made me think about those folks that were once SO famous, but then lost it. Where are they now? VH1 can't possibly create a special for all of them -- and really VH1 is only interested in those from the 80s it seems.I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Chaperone and even Beautiful Ruins.

There are books that go beyond the mediocre at a certain point for a certain reader. Thus, making the difference in the staying power of a character. For me, Laura's life outside the lights of hollywood is what made this a compelling read for me. Her life is complex and the life she created as Laura remains in some cases as complex. Straub writes in a seemingly simplistic manner and then hits you between the eyes with turn of phrase or emotion that is unexpected to say the least. I look forward to what Emma Straub comes up with next.

I enjoyed this book because of the old Hollywood Emma Straub writes about so well. I wasn't born during the time period, but I grew up with a mother who adored the glamour of old Hollywood, so I felt like I was visiting an old friend in its pages. The intrigue and back-biting and the studio controlling an actor or actresses life to the point they told them who they were, how they were to act, who they were to date or be seen with. These people were cattle to the big Hollywood system, lining their pockets with gold while being tight fisted with anyone other than the brightest star. Keeping them under contract and treating them good or bad, depending on how pissed off the studio heads were at that particular actor at any given moment in time.Elsa's struggle to Laura was interesting and well written in my opinion. I would recommend this story, especially to people who really remember those old stars and those scandalous stories of days of yore.

I love films, Hollywood, movie stars, glamour and this book had all of that. Laura Lamont is a fictional character but she reminded me of several old Hollywood movie stars. From what I’ve read in interviews with Emma Straub, she did quite a bit of research about the Hollywood of yesteryear and the way the studios used to control all of the movie stars. I loved getting an inside peek at how it worked behind the scenes.This book is more than that though. It follows Laura through most of her life, which goes through several ups and downs, some them expected and some of them quite unexpected. Her evolution from Elsa to Laura is not a straightforward transformation. Straub has made Laura more complicated than that, which I appreciated. Her writing is beautifully descriptive and was a joy to read.

When she is a child, Elsa Emerson’s family suffers a terrible tragedy. As a teen, she is anxious to get out of Wisconsin, and at 18 she abandons her family’s country theater when she and her new husband, aspiring actor Gordon Pitts, take off to California. Once in California, she finds herself living life as a housewife, until she is discovered at a Gardner Brothers studio party by studio head Irving Green. Irving takes Elsa under his wing and refashions her as Laura Lamont. As Laura Lamont, she becomes one of Gardner Brothers’ most lucrative stars, and Elsa Emerson Pitts is left further and further behind. As she navigates the changing landscape of Hollywood in the 40s, 50s and 60s, Laura must learn to balance who she is now with who she used to be in order to find her peace. Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures is an intriguing look at a woman trying to find her place in a world that is constantly changing. This book is not plot-driven: in 300 pages, Emma Straub covers 50 years. Rather, it’s a look at Elsa’s transition from her rural Wisconsin childhood to the fast-paced life of a Hollywood starlet, and a look at how she must find her way in the world. In particular, what stood out to me was how Laura was always dependent on others, and men in particular. Whether it was her father, or Gordon or Irving, Laura made very few decisions for herself. And when it wasn’t one of the men in her life, it was her children she was dependent on to help her survive. But by the end of the novel, she seems to come to the realization that she must take care of herself in order to thrive. I really enjoyed this novel. Straub brings Laura and the Hollywood of the 1940s and 1950s to life, and I could almost imagine myself on stage at Gardner Brothers. The only thing I really struggled with was keeping track of the time changes- there were places where I had trouble keeping track of exactly how old Laura and her children were- though a year was listed at the start of each chapter, it seemed almost arbitrary and there were some points where years would pass in the span of a page with almost no notice paid to them. That may have been deliberate on Straub’s part, as a way of focusing on glimpses of Laura’s life when major events happened, but on more than one occasion, I thought her son was older than he actually was. But I look forward to reading more by Ms. Straub in the future.

Emma Straub's novel, LAURA LAMONT'S LIFE IN PICTURES, follows a young woman as she journeys from a childhood filled with family and theater, to an adulthood in the early days of Hollywood where she is remade over and over. In many ways, it depicts the stereotypical Hollywood story, but Straub makes Laura Lamont -- or Elsa Emerson, as she was born -- feel very real, and her transition from child to woman, from newcomer to star to struggling actress seem fresh. She is first and foremost a person with dreams and baggage and a desire to make something of herself.We meet young Elsa in Wisconsin, where she grows up helping and later acting in shows at the barn theater run by her family. The youngest of three girls, Elsa is the only one to actually leave home and pursue her dreams, an early marriage taking her to Hollywood, leaving behind the dark clouds hovering over her family in the wake of one older sister's suicide years earlier. Motherhood slows Elsa's rise to fame -- and even her ability to pursue her dream -- as her husband goes on to get bit parts at a studio that strongly resembles Warner Brothers. It is only the notice of powerful executive Irving Green that allows Elsa to begin to act. It is Green who encourages her, who dubs her Laura Lamont, who extricates her from her failing marriage and eventually marries her himself. But in reality, Elsa's transition to Laura is just one of a series of reinventions she undergoes. In many ways, her best acting performances take place in life rather than on screen.I enjoyed this book, without truly falling in love. I'm fascinated by Hollywood stories, so I might have been predisposed to liking it, but that said, Straub does a wonderful job of capturing the atmosphere of old Hollywood, with the studio systems and the sense that the studio performed the role of parent to the many actors who worked for them and allowed themselves to be shuttled through their careers. I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in that period of film making.

I've been in love with family sagas that begin somewhere around the 1920's and Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures is another title to add to that list.Laura Lamont (who was not a real actress, as familiar as her name might sound) was born Elsa Emerson in Door County, Wisconsin to a family of theater-lovers. Her father who owned a theater company invested in his three daughters but ended up with just one who loved the stage - Elsa.Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures travels from Elsa/Laura's life as a young girl all the way through her mature years. Heartbreak, success, horror, pain, love, and hope all make their familiar way through the themes in this book and, although the story might seem familiar, it's the fact that it's there, as a whole, in the book which makes this book something special.That doesn't make much sense, now that I just re-read what I wrote, but I cannot think of any other way to word it. Just by the events in this book being put together, the story becomes something special. In order to understand better, I guess you would need to read the book.Now, in spite of all that praise, there was a small part of the book that I struggled with. One of the themes that moves through the book is one dealing with the seriousness of depression and the result was some pretty gaping plot holes. I would have liked to see those handled more cleverly, but they weren't glaring enough to make me lose focus on the story as a whole.All in all, if you love family sagas and are entranced by the idea of the golden age of Hollywood, this is a story you must pick up.

The good: The author had me hooked into the character within 7 pages.. I felt like I could hear her voice. The first chapters of the tale make you feel like this could be an excellent storyThe bad: I'm not exactly sure what happened here.. The telling becomes almost like someone trying to quickly sum up a life. Its a lot more telling then showing in writers speak. Almost completely telling, and it actually suffers from too much brevity, I think. The voice of the protagonist becomes so matter of fact that it almost loses all emotion. The sum: I just don't know. I like it and I don't like it, all at the same time. The story is definitely a well trodden path, so much so that I checked the internet to see if the author was supposedly referring to a specific Hollywood starlets life. That said, it is not uninteresting. Hmmm.

Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures is a predictable story set during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Small town girl with big dreams goes to Hollywood, becomes famous and falls from grace. The story lacks imagination and the characters lack depth. At times I thought I was reading the Cliff Notes of a book written with much more detail and imagination. On the positive side, the ending surprised me. It was the only thing about the storyline I was not able to predict.

I really liked this one, and would recommend to anyone interested in the Golden Age of cinema. Straub was able to be fun, yet intellectual and keep me engaged throughout the story of this surprisingly complex fictional starlet. Although it seems like a somewhat simple story at times, there is a depth that resonates long after.

While it is clear that Emma Straub did her research into the movie industry in the 20's, 30's, and 40's this book fell flat for me. I started off enjoying the book and loved hearing about Elsa as a child. I felt like Straub should have covered more of Elsa as a child. That was one of the highlights of the book for me. I didn't enjoy how the book jumped many years in between chapters. I would have rather read more about her childhood and early years in Hollywood than when she was older and trying to revive her career again. This book was good but there just wasn't a special spark there to make it great. I love old movies from the 30's and 40's and while this book tried to be a tribute to that time it didn't live up to them for me.I received this book from a Librarything Early Reviewers giveaway, that does not affect the content of my review in any way.