The Princess and the Goblin

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Novel about Celebrity
Review: I first read Paul Rosner's showbiz novel, "The Princess and the Goblin" when I first completed college and a friend gave me a copy of the book. I was enchanted to find a story about celebrity and its effect on talent, identity, and relationships that rang completely true. I am delighted that the novel is once again available to current readers. I had as much fun reading it today as I did when I first read it.

The novel spans the lives of its main characters (actors, stars, writers, directors, has-beens, and would-be's) from the late 1930's to the early 1960's. Although younger readers may not identify some references to real-life characters and places in New York and Hollywood, I think they will responde to the book's wit and psychological perception. It is a great read! I also believe the book stands along other great novels about fame, e.g., "The Day of the Locust" and "What Makes Sammy Run?"

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Novel about Celebrity
Review: I first read Paul Rosner's showbiz novel, "The Princess and the Goblin" when I first completed college and a friend gave me a copy of the book. I was enchanted to find a story about celebrity and its effect on talent, identity, and relationships that rang completely true. I am delighted that the novel is once again available to current readers. I had as much fun reading it today as I did when I first read it.

The novel spans the lives of its main characters (actors, stars, writers, directors, has-beens, and would-be's) from the late 1930's to the early 1960's. Although younger readers may not identify some references to real-life characters and places in New York and Hollywood, I think they will responde to the book's wit and psychological perception. It is a great read! I also believe the book stands along other great novels about fame, e.g., "The Day of the Locust" and "What Makes Sammy Run?"

Rating:
Summary: Utter trash, however...
Review: I'd heard about this book for decades, so I was delighted to at last find a copy. Obviously inspired by the success of Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins, this roman-a-clef is notorious for its depiction of the alleged lesbian affair between Mary Martin and Jean Arthur. It very much follows the formula established by Robbins and Susann, with enough clues about the real-life personalities to let the reader know who they "really" are, but with enough differences to keep from getting sued. It basically tells the story of how Maureen Covillion (Mary Martin), a shallow but ambitious and conniving young actress, "steals" the personality of sensitive acting genius Josie Adams (Jean Arthur). It's a campy melodrama that would have made a wonderful film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Some scenes are quite wonderful, but many are meandering and pointless. (An example is a long conversation between a writer and his wife about their children's behavior that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the book.) There are, however, a lot of laughs along the way, mostly at Miss Covillion's expense. There are also some shrewd observations of show folk and show business by someone who has obviously been there. There are several minor characters who will be recognizable to musical comedy buffs, such as the woman composer whose father is also a famous Broadway composer. (I doubt that the personality he ascribes to the character is accurate, however.) Rosner could have used an editor badly, but at the same time the book's schizophrenia was one thing that made it interesting for me. Make no mistake about it. This is trash. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: Utter trash, however...
Review: I'd heard about this book for decades, so I was delighted to at last find a copy. Obviously inspired by the success of Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins, this roman-a-clef is notorious for its depiction of the alleged lesbian affair between Mary Martin and Jean Arthur. It very much follows the formula established by Robbins and Susann, with enough clues about the real-life personalities to let the reader know who they "really" are, but with enough differences to keep from getting sued. It basically tells the story of how Maureen Covillion (Mary Martin), a shallow but ambitious and conniving young actress, "steals" the personality of sensitive acting genius Josie Adams (Jean Arthur). It's a campy melodrama that would have made a wonderful film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Some scenes are quite wonderful, but many are meandering and pointless. (An example is a long conversation between a writer and his wife about their children's behavior that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the book.) There are, however, a lot of laughs along the way, mostly at Miss Covillion's expense. There are also some shrewd observations of show folk and show business by someone who has obviously been there. There are several minor characters who will be recognizable to musical comedy buffs, such as the woman composer whose father is also a famous Broadway composer. (I doubt that the personality he ascribes to the character is accurate, however.) Rosner could have used an editor badly, but at the same time the book's schizophrenia was one thing that made it interesting for me. Make no mistake about it. This is trash. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: A Fairy-Tale for Grown-ups
Review: True to its fairy-tale title this book takes as its subject matter the most unreal place that has ever existed: Hollywood, California. The tale spans an era during which the dream that was Hollywood wielded its greatest power, the years between the start of World War Two and the early 1960s, when the whole world was star-struck, and the names of screen legends like Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and of course Marilyn Monroe figured as prominently in most people's thoughts as the names of their own family members. What the book really examines, with wit, savage humour and an irony that ultimately shades into true tragedy, is the notion of "star quality": what is it, where does it come from, what are its components, can you fake it? The book's answer is that in Hollywood you can fake anything, including that. These are people who earn their living by pretending to be somebody else, they do it in front of the cameras and if they want to get anywhere professionally they had better learn to do it when the camera's aren't there as well. Nobody wants reality. Reality doesn't sell.

The two central female characters are actresses, one a "bubbling, cottonheaded southern belle", a "personality actress with no personality"; the other a sophisticated, successful and highly talented diva just a couple of notches below the top of her profession, with a vulnerability that has become her on-screen trademark. The heart of the plot is the relationship that develops between them, and the notion that it might be possible for one woman to don the personality of another and carry it further than she was able to take it herself.

In form the book is a great panoramic overview of Hollywood spanning these years, with many digressions and reflective pauses. It is a work of substance to be savoured for the sheer elegance and wit of the writing as well as the thought and insight it provides into this crazy and fascinating world. Rosner, one feels, wants to create monsters but cannot: even his minor characters when they are behaving at their most petty, truculent and egocentric, soar above stereotype and take hold of our sympathies. Little wonder that this has been hailed as the best novel about Hollywood that has ever been written.