REVIEW: The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin

The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin
Audiobook Narrated by Kimberly Farr
My rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Synopsis

An intimate portrait of the close friendship and powerful creative partnership between two of Hollywood’s earliest female superstars: Frances Marion and Mary Pickford. Hollywood, 1914. Frances Marion, a young writer desperate for a break, meets “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford, already making a name for herself both on and off the screen with her golden curls and lively spirit. Together, these two women will take the movie business by storm.

This is a novel about power: the power of women during the exhilarating early years of Hollywood, and the power of forgiveness. It’s also about the imbalance of power, then and now, and the sacrifices and compromises women must make in order to succeed. And at its heart, it’s a novel about the power of female friendship. (Via Goodreads)

Review

I have always been fascinated by the history of the film industry, so much so that I majored in Film Studies in college. Given that, The Girls in the Picture was a book that stood out to me immediately. I had a thorough understanding about the accomplishments and importance of Mary Pickford and Frances Marion in a Women in Film class and was intrigued to learn more about the duo in a personal sense rather than a professional one. While I cannot make any statements about the veracity of the book as far as the pair's personal lives go, it is pleasingly thorough and accurate in its portrayal of the facts of their professional lives.

With that said, I thought it went a bit too far with the personal stuff. It did get to a place where I believe it relied too heavily on conjecture rather than fact. This is far from the only historical fiction novel to do this but it is something that annoys me. I think it is disrespectful to misrepresent the thoughts and feelings of the dead. I also was a bit confused by the decision to present only Francis and not Mary through first-person narration. I know not being in control of her image or story was a big issue Mary Pickford faced throughout her life so to have that repeated in a book presenting itself as an empowering and personal portrait of both women rubbed me the wrong way.

I would say this book is worth a listen despite the issues surrounding representation. It is entertaining and does provide a very thorough history of their lives. Maybe too thorough as it felt very overdrawn and should have been at least 2-3 hours shorter.

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