Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures

Fülszöveg

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LPURP mnONT'S LirE !N PICluRgS
"At once iconic and specific, Emnna Straub's beautifully observed first novel explores the fraught trajectory of what has become a staple of the American dream: the hunger for stardom and fame. Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures affords an intimate, epic viev\/ of how that dream ricochets through one American life."
author o\ A Visit from the Goon Squad
"An exquisite debut novel that brings Depression-era Hollywood to life with startling immediacy. Laura Lamont is a memorable character, and Emma Straub illuminates her inner life with uncanny authority."
-TmiPeMtta
author of The Leftovers and Little Children
"\ absolutely loved this tale of one woman's incredible journey from smalltown girl to movie star. Straub brings Old Hollywood fully to life, in all its glamour, excess, ruthlessness, and beauty. I didn't want this marvelous novel to end. " Comf/ie^ ^uB/O/t
author of Commencement and Maine

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Fülszöveg

/imtAB^
LPURP mnONT'S LirE !N PICluRgS
"At once iconic and specific, Emnna Straub's beautifully observed first novel explores the fraught trajectory of what has become a staple of the American dream: the hunger for stardom and fame. Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures affords an intimate, epic viev\/ of how that dream ricochets through one American life."
author o\ A Visit from the Goon Squad
"An exquisite debut novel that brings Depression-era Hollywood to life with startling immediacy. Laura Lamont is a memorable character, and Emma Straub illuminates her inner life with uncanny authority."
-TmiPeMtta
author of The Leftovers and Little Children
"\ absolutely loved this tale of one woman's incredible journey from smalltown girl to movie star. Straub brings Old Hollywood fully to life, in all its glamour, excess, ruthlessness, and beauty. I didn't want this marvelous novel to end. " Comf/ie^ ^uB/O/t
author of Commencement and Maine

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An enchanting debut novel about a small-town
midwestern girl who finds fame as a sensational movie star during Hollywood's golden age, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures is also a story of family, ambition, and sacrifice. In 1920, Else Emerson, the youngest and blondest of three sisters, is born in idyllic Door County, Wisconsin. Her parents own the Cherry County Playhouse, and more than anything, Elsa relishes appearing onstage, where she soaks up the approval of her father and the embrace of the audience. But when tragedy strikes her family, her acting becomes more than a child's game of pretend.
While still in her teens, Elsa marries and flees to Los Angeles. There she is discovered by Irving Green, one of the most powerful Hollywood executives; he refashions her as a serious, exotic brunette and renames her Laura Lamont. With her new identity and her name in lights, Laura's career takes off, as does her affair with Irving, who becomes her great love. Laura experiences all the glamour and extravagance of the heady pinnacle of stardom in the studio-system era as she becomes an Academy Award-winning actress—and a genuine movie star. But fame has its costs, and while Laura tries to balance career, family, and personal happiness, she realizes that Elsa Emerson might not be gone completely.
This is a story about the power of illusion and the possibility of escape, about the expectations placed upon us by others and the identities we create for ourselves. Ambitious and richly imagined, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures is as intimate-and as bigger-than-life-as the great films of the golden age of Hollywood. Written with warmth and verve, it confirms Emma Straub's reputation as one of the most exciting new talents in fiction. Vissza