A Golden Life
Twenty-five-year-old Frances Healey arrives in Hollywood in 1938, newly hired as secretary to Lawrence Merrill, a producer at VistaGlen Studios. The studio is preparing to film the story of a legendary actress who began dancing for miners as a six-year-old, pushed by her ambitious mother. Kitty Ridley worked her way up to play Shakespearean roles, her favorite being Juliet, who she played until she was 30 to never-diminishing applause. Kitty, now 90 years old, writes a letter refusing to grant permission to the filmmakers. Its script is based on a biography full of lies which, if she hadn’t been living in France, she would have denied permission to publish, but she’s denying them now. The ingenue actress Belinda Vail, romantically involved with Merrill, is thrilled to be signed to play Kitty, her first substantial role. This film must be made!
Kitty’s refusal sends Merrill and Frances to the Napa Valley to convince Kitty to change her mind. Being away from Hollywood and befriending Kitty pushes Frances to confront her painful past, shifting her sense of herself and her possibilities and creating new emotional dynamics.
A Golden Life depicts an intriguing range of characters from Kitty Ridley herself, to Merrill’s precocious daughter Sally, to the Ventimiglia family who house Kitty in Napa. The novel explores how movies affect our lives; acting as a craft and a behavior; the challenges of telling the truth about anyone’s life, especially in a movie; and stage-acting vs. film acting. Frances makes an engaging heroine, and Moyer’s descriptive style and clever plotting add to the book’s appeal. Recommended.
