My Hollywood
Mona Simpson, author of Anywhere but Here (1986) and PEN/Faulkner Award-nominated Off Keck Road (2000), illuminates the tensions of modern motherhood in her latest novel My Hollywood. The novel revolves around Claire, a well-to-do if slightly dull wife and mother, and Lola, Claire’s Filipina nanny. Lola cares for Claire’s baby, William, while Claire struggles to grow her career as a composer and cope with a husband who rarely makes it home for dinner. The plot may not be unique–if anything, our literary world may be experiencing a glut of novels dissecting suburban malaise–but the voice of Lola is. Unlike other nanny/mommy novels, both the nanny and the mother in My Hollywood are sympathetic characters whose points of view alternate to tell the story. Still, for some critics, Simpson’s new techniques didn’t make up for tired themes and characters we’ve seen before. While not as enticing as Simpson’s previous novels, My Hollywood presents subtle tensions that many readers will relate to.
“It takes a very subtle, sophisticated and confident writer to make our most common problems come off as unique on the page as they feel at 3 in the morning.” – Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
“Subtly, almost dispassionately, Simpson works her habitual magic, showing how love travels, ownerless and unbidden, among children who need adults, and adults who need children.” – Liesl Schillinger, New York Times
“Unfortunately, Claire’s new mother dilemmas are as narrow and familiar as the ones chronicled daily on the message boards of urbanbaby.com and weekly in the New York Times Sunday styles section.” – Hanna Rosin, Slate
“Simpson’s penchant for undisciplined narrative, which made her other books so enjoyable, is over the top.” – Abby Frucht, Powell’s Books
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