Review: The Actress By: Amy Sohn

The Actress: A Novel by Amy Sohn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

New to the scene, Maddy Freed finds herself being whisked away - from the indie film she co wrote and starred in, from her boyfriend, from all she knew - to the world of Berlin openings, directors in Europe, and the famous actor Steven Weller. Like in the movies, he saw her from across the room and moved everything to have her - but their lives were real and not the movies. Enter the world of Hollywood, paper moons and cardboard seas, agents that manipulate and sell their own children - how can a genuine emotion like love be felt and survive in a place that feeds the disingenuous? After a year of marriage rumors of Maddy's marriage spew the tabloids, even old friends think her marriage is not real, yet as she works harder she feels as if she is failing and sinking further.
Written sections of the relationship as Acts, spanning years and keeping the characters growth or non growth in part of not just the main characters story, but also the secondary and very minor - the reader develops time, heart retching and joyous, but the naivety that once was there is no longer and what the soul now sees and experiences can not be undone. (Kind of like the lesson of Bluebeard, even to the bleeding key) Are we all acting in a role, and just who prepared us for it?

This one would be great for Book Group especially for discussions, but you will not want to put it down and will read in one sitting.

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