West of Sunset (Stewart O'Nan)

Ahh, the glory days -- when Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Humphrey Bogart, and F. Scott Fitzgerald all roamed the earth at the same time.  Reading Stewart O'Nan's West of Sunset is like taking a trip back to this glamorous period, with cameos from the greats of Hollywood's Golden Age.

West of Sunset focuses on Fitzgerald during the last few years of his life, when Gatsby had been out for awhile, and the money was running out.  Literary buffs know that Zelda, his wife, had long suffered from mental illness and was confined to an asylum.  To make ends meet, Fitzgerald moved out to California to write dialogue for movie scripts; while there, he fell in love with a Hollywood gossip columnist and beganThe Last Tycoon.
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The best thing about West of Sunset is O'Nan's ability to form pictures in your mind.  I love historical fiction and especially this time period, but I think anyone would appreciate the author's depiction of this thoroughly flawed man just trying to put one foot in front of the other.

MY RATING - 4

The House at the End of Hope Street (Menna van Praag)

The House at the End of Hope Street is Menna van Praag's glorious novel about a magical home and its inhabitants.  It's the type of book that comforts you like a bowl of chicken soup and just makes you feel better about yourself in times of trouble.  With a who's who of historical figures and unforgettable modern-day characters, The House at the End of Hope Street is a beautiful literary work.

Alba perceives her life as being in ruins, having just had her academic reputation stolen from her.  Her beloved mother has just taken her own life, and her siblings do not seem to care one iota for her.  One day, she shows up at a house where people she's never met have been waiting for her.  This is a house for people in despair who are learning to pick up the pieces of their lives again, and the caretaker, Peggy, says that Alba is welcome to stay for ninety-nine nights.  Pictures of past residents on the wall, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy Parker, and Sylvia Plath, communicate with both the main characters and each other, which just goes to show that every single one of us has needed a "time out" at some point.

This book is a delightfully written fable about what life truly means, and when Peggy has her "a-ha!" moment towards the end, I had a light bulb go off in my own head.  You'll come to know these characters well, anxiously awaiting their fates, and seeing a little part of yourself in all of them.

MY RATING - 5