EVERYTHING LOVELY, EFFORTLESS, SAFE by Jenny Hollowell (Holt, 2010)
It’s the writing that shimmers in this quick-reading debut novel by Jenny Hollowell – spare, poignant and eerily abstracted – the words get to the truth of the matter. But as the central character, Birdie, sees it, "nobody ever wants the truth." As a survivor, Birdie runs away from her depressed mother, absent-missionary father and young, devout husband and escapes to L.A. with nothing but a sense of destiny in her pocket that involves bright lights and massive success as an actress. Teetering between being “pretty” vs. “beautiful” and armed with a devoted agent, Birdie jumps headfirst into the quintessential L.A. lifestyle which drips with narcissism and tingles with sexual exploits and sinks in a sad sense of selling out. While Birdie “drinks too much and loves to little,” she is without hope, without fear and is therefore able to survive (8.5/10).
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