Margaret in Hollywood Hardcover – November 1, 1991
by Darcy O'Brien 
 
A gorgeous ingenue from New York, Margaret Spencer takes Hollywood by storm, embarking on a sexual journey that teaches her how much she really has yet to learn. Reprint. NYT.
 
From Library Journal
A surprisingly mundane saga centering on the titular feisty young girl and her hell-for-leather mother. It begins in Kansas City in the teens, then when the father's show biz fortunes erode, moves to Buenos Aires, and to New York, where Margaret becomes a popular model, yearns to act on the stage, and falls in love with a young "wannabe" writer. Margaret opens on Broadway but, underage, is signed by her now-widowed mother and a pair of shyster agents to Fox in Hollywood in 1926, where this cliche-riddled novel, a blend of fact and fancy written from Margaret's point of view, finally becomes somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen until late in the story (making the title a shameless misnomer). The novel is the first uncharacteristic fizzle for author O'Brien (son of screen stars Marguerite Churchill and George O'Brien), who has written two well-received previous novels (e.g., The Silver Spooner, LJ 10/15/81) and a pair of successful nonfiction crime books (e.g., Murder in Little Egypt, LJ 2/1/89). Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/90.- Da vid Bartholomew, NYPLCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
3.15*