The Song Is You

I thoroughly enjoyed Megan Abbott's debut novel, Die a Little, as the author so vividly described the stark amorality of 1950s Hollywood. Anything goes if it'll help you become Robert Mitchum, Carey Grant, or Jean Harlow. This second novel of Abbott's, The Song Is You, is just as good or better. Told from the perspective (very capably, too) of a blase reporter-turned-spin-doctor "publicist", the story is given in careful, bleak, and thoughtful prose as we follow our narrator "Hop" into the seedy world of blackmail, closet quickies in hopes of earning an audition, and murder. The Song Is You is based on the real-life disappearance of Jean Spangler, a relatively unknown bit-part actress and dancer. The real-life story is fascinating, and the fictional solution that Abbott offers is artistically satisfying even though no one really knows what happened to Ms. Spangler. You'll be enthralled from the first few pages, and there's no padding or fluff in this dark, gritty story of sex and ambition. Ms. Abbott graduated from NYU with a Ph.D in American and English Literature. She is married and lives in NYC.

Megan Abbott's THE SONG IS YOU may be the best throwback hard-boiled novel ever written. It's part Chandler, part Ellroy, yet all her own--a masterpiece of nostalgic longing and pulp nerve. Abbott's fictional worlds are as glamorous and ugly as Rick's Café Américain--teeming with life, and darkness both foreign and familiar. They make you say "what the hell" and belly up to the bar, where an endless procession of compelling lowlifes and tarnished heroes file past you like a cortège, so close you can smell their breath as they whisper stories you'd swear were your own. Her prose is bourbon straight-up; it makes your heart burn and your guts hurt, and as it goes to your head a crooked smile twists your mug and sticks. All you can do is nod, and mutter, "you're right, Megan, you've got us pegged--we're all suckers." But you hang around like a bad blind date. Why? Because somewhere in your aching marrow you know the French are right: melancholy is the sweetest emotion.

A seasoned hollywood publicity writer of ambiguous morality is driven to find out why an extremely sexy actress of minor roles disappeared forever one evening. Its a great start to a terrific novel full of facinating surprises and dark twists. The novel is rife with vivid characters that draw you further into the mystery. The author takes us to the hollywood back-lots of the 1950's, plus several darker places. If you are looking for something that is well-written, sexy, and smart, you must check out this novel.

Megan Abbott has made a solid fan of me. She's smart, she's talented and she knows how to do her homework. The dark underbelly of 50s Hollywood, replete with characters whose motivations run the gamut from simple survival to satisfying their grotesque and sometimes terrifying urges, is evoked effortlessly in prose the big boys of noir can't touch. The Song is You may be a noir fan's dream, but the writing is so lyrical and precise that this book will appeal to all readers of great fiction.

You want to look away, but you can't put it down. You feel dirty reading the story, but it invigorates you. You feel like you should judge some characters and what they do, but you're attracted to them - esp Gil Hopkins. A sordid and seedy masterpiece that will be the best book you've ever read.