The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 2019: Re-release December 2020

The bright lights of the theater district, the glamour and danger of 1950s New York, and the wild scene at the iconic Chelsea Hotel come together in a dazzling new novel about a twenty-year friendship that will irrevocably change two women’s lives–from the national bestselling author of The Dollhouse and The Address.

From the dramatic redbrick facade to the sweeping staircase dripping with art, the Chelsea Hotel has long been New York City’s creative oasis for the many artists, writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, and poets who have called it home–a scene playwright Hazel Riley and actress Maxine Mead are determined to use to their advantage. Yet they soon discover that the greatest obstacle to putting up a show on Broadway has nothing to do with their art, and everything to do with politics. A Red Scare is sweeping across America, and Senator Joseph McCarthy has started a witch hunt for communists, with those in the entertainment industry in the crosshairs. As the pressure builds to name names, it is more than Hazel and Maxine’s Broadway dreams that may suffer as they grapple with the terrible consequences, but also their livelihood, their friendship, and even their freedom.

Spanning from the 1940s to the 1960s, The Chelsea Girls deftly pulls back the curtain on the desperate political pressures of McCarthyism, the complicated bonds of female friendship, and the siren call of the uninhibited Chelsea Hotel.

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REVIEW:THE CHELSEA GIRLS by Fiona Davis is a stand alone, historical, women’s fiction storyline focusing on three women: actress Maxine Mead, struggling actress/playwright/director Hazel Riley, and New York’s iconic Chelsea Hotel, where the who’s who of entertainment and art, party and live.

Told from first person perspective (Maxine Mead) and third person (Hazel Riley), based loosely in fact, THE CHELSEA GIRLS covers approximately twenty-two years in the life of actress Maxine Mead, and struggling actress/playwright/director Hazel Riley. In 1945 Hazel Riley had the opportunity to join the USO tour in Europe where she would meet actress Maxine Mead, and young artist Floyd Jenkins. A tight friendship would develop but the end of the war separated the trio until five years later when Hazel’s play Wartime Sonata, based upon their experiences in Europe, would be picked up by a Broadway producer, bringing Maxine, Floyd and Hazel back together again but all was not well in the United States as Senator Joseph McCarthy started a hunt for Communists in America. Targeting the entertainment industry, creating the HUAC House Un-American Activities Committee in an effort to takedown those believed to be members of, and support the Communist Party, Hazel would soon discover that a wolf in sheep’s clothing was about to destroy everything and more.

The majority of the story line is set in Manhattan, New York and The Chelsea Hotel . Hazel’s play has been commissioned by a Broadway producer, and the arrival of Hollywood starlet Maxine Mead pushes the production onwards and up but opening night is a disaster, and the fall-out finds Hazel facing the HUAC trying to prove she is innocent, and defend the lives of the people she loves.

Fiona Davis blends fact with fiction in a story line sweeping in the grandeur of The Chelsea Hotel-the secrets, the parties, the artists, and the reality of McCarthyism, and the witch hunt for Communists in America. THE CHELSEA GIRLS is character driven, imaginative and wondrous story line that focuses on a period in time where lives were destroyed by accusation and innuendo without proof or evidence to the contrary.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy