Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely?
Fans of vintage Hollywood movies will especially enjoy Sarah McCoy’s romantic new novel, which glitters with allusions to stars and films of the 1950s and 1960s—beginning with the title. (Remember Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?)
McCoy’s novel was inspired by the careers of several real starlets such as Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet) and above all Dolores Hart, who, after costarring with Elvis Presley (King Creole, Loving You) and other notable actors in a string of movies (including Where the Boys Are, Come Fly With Me, and Saint Francis of Assisi), turned her back on Hollywood at the age of 24 to enter a Benedictine nunnery, where she still lives.
McCoy has lightly fictionalized this material to create a tale partly set between 1964 and 1968 and partly in 1990, when Mother Lori’s niece Lu arrives at the convent. Rebellious Lu, who can’t seem to decide who she is or what she wants in life, can’t graduate from college without writing a history thesis, so she has chosen to interview her famous aunt, the former Lori Lovely (born Lucy Hickey).
As Lori tells Lu her story, we meet heartthrob Lucas Wesley (Elvis Presley, with a touch of James Dean). In life, as on the screen, she plays Juliet to his Romeo. And then along comes the aptly named Tony Rischio, Lori’s disaster of an agent. Meanwhile, Lu discovers family secrets as well as her true self.
McCoy has fun with the names, and the novel is fun to read, though sometimes the author’s exuberance results in purple or predictable prose. Sometimes Lori’s and Lu’s characters seem indistinguishable, and spirituality remains mysterious. But overall, this novel provides excellent, nostalgic, star-studded entertainment.
