Mary Sheeran

Dianna Fletcher is Hollywood royalty, a member of a family where her parents and brothers are all award-winning actors, too. In her 16th year, no longer suitable for the Disney vehicles she's been starring in, but not ready for adult roles, she finds herself at a crossroads -- and on the verge of growing up as she learns the truth about the Hollywood blacklist, hidden family secrets, and her own craft. Sheeran's research is meticulous, and she brings a time and place to life with vivid details -- at the Oscars, on the set, and at her family's homes in Beverly Hills and Malibu (not to mention an enviable hotel suite in New York City which could fit my apartment five or ten times over . . . . ). Bill Royce, the handsome young actor who confuses and confounds her, feels very real, particularly filtered through Dianna's perceptions. Movie stars abound, as do both John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and, best of all, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Sheeran has believably embedded the Fletcher family in the midst of all of this. Dianna's political awakening is well-drawn (a Pete Seeger concert is one of my favorite scenes), as is her coming into her own with her craft as an actor.… (altro)