Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel

I've never reviewed a book before I finished it until Anthony Marra's *Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel.* How one so young can write so well about a past that I remember better than he does is a mystery to me. So far, the most salient feature is the quality of the writing itself. Sentence by sentence, the prose is impeccable. The characters are very well-drawn, the plot intriguing, but what makes this novel sing is its style. Reading it is like listening to a fine rendition of "Hallelujah." It carries you along with it.I finished the novel this morning. What a wondrous book this is! All I can say is, Read it.

“Long before she went to work in the pictures, she understood that the true temptation of fantasy wasn’t its outlandishness but its aching plausibility.”Maria Lagana is born in Rome during the time of Mussolini’s rise to power. The daughter of a lawyer diametrically opposed to the new regime, she and her family live under constant threat. When young Maria’s actions lead to her father’s arrest, she and her mother are forced to immigrate to Los Angeles to live with relatives. How can she ever forgive herself for what she did? Will she ever see her father again? Will her father survive the wrath of Mussolini’s thugs? Maria is tormented by the past as she relives those fateful moments over and over.As war prepares to engulf the globe, Maria, now a young woman in her mid-twenties, has established herself as an associate producer at Mercury Pictures: a low-budget movie studio. She and her co-workers, a team of European refugees and one Chinese actor, form a family of émigrés who struggle to establish themselves in their new home. Once war breaks out, however, the majority of Mercury’s crew find themselves listed as “enemy aliens” and are, ironically, denied many of the basic rights America is fighting a global war to protect.“Mercury Pictures Presents” is a magnificent tribute to the immigrant community and their contributions to the nation’s war propaganda efforts in Hollywood during the 1940s. The cast of characters include architects, poets, actors, carpenters, screenwriters, as well as a very entertaining group of older Italian aunts who make up Maria’s support network. Each of these are a story unto themselves and the author has dedicated ample space for each.Expertly written, “Mercury Pictures Presents” by Anthony Marra is a tale that weaves itself across two continents and through several decades with a style that incorporates both wit and thoughtfulness. At once both excruciatingly painful and delightfully humorous, it is a unique story that reminds us we are a nation of immigrants who have each contributed to the rich and colorful tapestry of American history.

I hold a degree in English Literature, and “masterpiece” is a word that is, like “unprecedented”, used often enough to strip it of the visceral effect for which it was invented. I wish I had a better, more efficacious word at my behest, but I do not.This work is a masterpiece. “Masterpiece” connotes a certain sense of scale, and this work achieves it through some of the most dense - yet deft - plot layering I have ever encountered. There is a central spinal plot thread, with an entire nervous system of plot threads radiating out from it, each one communicating with the other in a dialogue network. Characters speak to one other’s experiences across time and place, with themes of exile, isolation, war, injustice, justice, connection and triumph serving as the body that is animated by this neural network of human experience.Great art elevates, and this work is great art. You will come away from reading this book - mostly set in 1940’s Los Angeles but also featuring extensive scenes from wartime Europe - an enriched and more sensitive human, as if you had just stepped out of a dark room and into the sunlight.

This is a tale of WWII unlike any I have read so far. It is a look at émigrés in Hollywood who leave their countries to escape fascism and end up constrained and imprisoned in different ways in the US. We follow the tale of Maria and her parents – the separation and difficult relationships; as well as her father’s unofficially adopted son who Maria later blames for leaving her father behind. It is about the guilt we carry with us from our past and how our stories shape and intertwine with the stories of others. The novel looks at the motion picture studios and how they were made to develop films based on the propaganda of the day; which in a way parallels the stories we tell ourselves about who we are in this world. We move back and forth between the characters pasts in Italy and their wartime lives in Los Angeles. There are many funny as well as touching moments throughout the book.It takes awhile for the book to start feeling solid. I kept wondering where it was taking me and when it would be over. Eventually, the build-up of characters and contexts brings the tales of various characters together in a fairly satisfying way and there are some interesting moments along the way. This book integrates a lot of research but it doesn’t feel like it as you read it. I appreciated the nuggets of historical fact that I was unfamiliar with: the building of fake towns on airline hangars to disguise them from bombardment; the building of a Berlin neighborhood in Utah to test weaponry and military tactics. It was also fun to learn that the great aunts are built on the authors real great aunts. I enjoyed the book but I can’t say it blew me away.

Marra just keeps getting better and better.This is one that you will remember fondly.

I stumbled over this book by chance, expected a totally different story and had no idea of the style. What a discovery! From page one I loved it, knew that finishing it would make me sad because I would have to leave this amazing world I just discovered. Why: because you get to know (and somehow get to like) each character (even the antagonists), their backstory, you watch the unlikely unfold, you stay surprised with the twists. Anthony Marra: yes, I bought your book but it still was a a gift!

Some of the descriptive passages use overly complicated words but the narrative arc is well paced and populated with wonderful characters.

I really enjoyed this. Plenty of laugh out loud moments but with some tender, wistful moments too. All the other reviewers bang on about how well researched it it, probably because of the long list of books read whilst writing. But it is a work of fiction and beautifully written too. I only give it 4 starts because I found it plot light making it more a collection of connected vignettes, although individually they are excellent. Definitely worth a read.

Very good character development.