Barbara
A Novel
Joni Murphy
- Like
- Nolan’s
- Oppenheimer
- by
- way
- of
- Lucia
- Berlin,
- a
- radiant
- novel
- tracking
- the
- lifecycle
- of
- a
- silver
- screen
- starlet
- rising
- against
- the
- backdrop
- of
- the
- Atomic
- Age.Barbara
- is
- born
- shortly
- before
- World
- War
- II
- and
- lives
- through
- the
- conflict
- as
- a
- desert
- child
- trailing
- her
- father,
- an
- engineer
- in
- the
- famed
- and
- infamous
- Manhattan
- Project.
- When
- Barbara
- is
- thirteen,
- her
- beautiful,
- sensitive
- mother
- commits
- suicide.
- From
- that
- point
- on,
- these
- twin
- poles—the
- historic
- and
- the
- personal,
- the
- political
- and
- the
- violently
- intimate—vie
- for
- control
- of
- Barbara’s
- consciousness.As
- Barbara
- grows
- up
- and
- becomes
- a
- successful
- actress,
- traveling
- the
- world
- between
- film
- sets
- and
- love
- affairs,
- she
- takes
- on
- and
- sheds
- various
- roles—vampire’s
- victim
- and
- frontier
- prostitute;
- a
- saint
- and
- a
- bored
- housewife.
- She
- marries
- and
- divorces
- and
- marries
- again,
- the
- second
- time
- to
- a
- visionary
- director
- who
- proves
- to
- be
- the
- love
- of
- her
- life.
- Though
- they
- are
- not
- faithful
- to
- each
- other,
- their
- relationship
- provides
- the
- most
- enduring
- anchor
- in
- a
- remarkable
- life
- turbulent
- with
- fiction.Joni
- Murphy’s
- Barbara
- is
- a
- deep
- character
- study
- of
- a
- woman
- losing
- hold
- and
- recapturing
- her
- identity
- through
- the
- art
- and
- technology
- of
- moviemaking.
- Through
- an
- intimate
- first-person
- perspective,
- the
- novel
- follows
- Barbara
- as
- she
- navigates
- decades
- and
- genres—from
- austere
- 1950s
- family
- dramas
- to
- countercultural
- 1970s
- gothics—glimpsing
- herself
- in
- the
- reflective
- and
- deadly
- shards
- of
- the
- long
- 20th Century.
pro-mbooks3 : libris
