The Chelsea Girls

May 13, 2019
The strong friendship between two women who meet performing in USO shows during WWII is tested as the country descends into McCarthy-era madness in the solid latest from Davis (The Masterpiece). Hazel Ripley is a perennial understudy, pushed into performance by a mother who is grieving Hazel’s brother, a talented actor who died during the war. When Hazel joins the USO tour as the maid in Blythe Spirit, she initially dislikes star Maxine Mead, but as the women endure a sideline view to the horrors of war, they find that they are a good team, with Maxine acting and Hazel writing. After the war, they meet again in New York City when both are living at the Chelsea Hotel. Maxine has become a rising Hollywood starlet, and Hazel is staging her first play on Broadway. Soon the Red Scare consumes the nation, and Hazel is flagged as a possible communist and threatened with being blacklisted due to her association with Chelsea Hotel proprietor Lavinia Smarts. Maxine and Hazel are fearful their newly found community might be broken apart when they find mysterious men investigating the building. As a government agent appears to monitor rehearsals, Hazel is irritated but remains confident there’s nothing to be found. However, as the production nears opening night, Hazel worries her confidence could be misplaced. Featuring vibrant, witty characters who not only weather but thrive in a dark period of American history, Davis’s tale of one friendship’s strength will stun and satisfy readers.

May 1, 2019

Davis (The Masterpiece) brings to life another New York City landmark through the story of two midcentury women. Hazel Riley and Maxine Mead meet as USO performers in Italy at the end of World War II, unexpectedly becoming lifelong friends. Hazel lived a fairly sheltered life in a renowned theater family while Maxine faced discrimination owing to her German-born grandmother. Yet the two young women come together to fight an injustice and find common ground. After the war, Hazel checks in to the Chelsea Hotel, renowned residence of artists, musicians, writers, and actors, which Maxine had once called home. Inspired by her surroundings, Hazel pens a play based on her experience in Italy that is soon Broadway bound. Maxine arrives from Hollywood to star, but she has a secret that will tear them apart. In the days of McCarthy's Red Scare, Hazel is labeled a communist. With her career in jeopardy and her colleagues in danger, Hazel realizes that she can no longer trust Maxine. VERDICT This novel in three acts brings to vivid life the McCarthy era and its impact on the entertainment industry in a heartbreaking tale of the friendship of two brave women. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/19.]--Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2019
Perennial Broadway understudy Hazel Ripley and center-stage bombshell Maxine Mead formed a close bond as performers touring with the USO during World War ll. Now that they've been home for five years, can their friendship survive the McCarthy-era witch hunt for Communists in show business? Davis (The Masterpiece, 2018, etc.) has built her brand crafting historical fiction set at New York landmarks like the Barbizon Hotel, the Dakota apartment building, and Grand Central Terminal. Now readers are taken behind the doors of the storied Chelsea Hotel, a creative oasis for artists and freethinkers, as Hazel and Maxine try to navigate the Broadway theater scene. While Hazel has never enjoyed success onstage, she discovers a talent for playwriting and directing. Her career is off to a promising start, especially since bestie Maxine has agreed to use her star power as a box office draw for Hazel's show. Their drama unfolds offstage when both women are named on a list of Communist sympathizers and must testify about suspected anti-American activities. With a high-stakes storyline that should be tension-filled, the novel unfortunately features prose that is expository and flat. Maxine's diary confessionals fail to give any insight into her inner life and seem only to serve as information downloads. Even revelations that should shock evoke a tepid response, probably because the buildup has been so noncompelling. Thankfully, Hazel's relationships--with everyone from her mother to a private investigator working in tandem with the FBI--are more engaging and complex. Notably absent from the cast list, though, is the Chelsea Hotel itself. In Davis' previous novels, the setting plays an integral role in the storyline. Here, though, the sparse descriptions of the site seem to be almost an afterthought. Hazel and Maxine could have been living at a Holiday Inn and it would have had no effect on the telling. A forced effort to leverage interest around the legendary Chelsea Hotel, this novel is a miss.

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June 1, 2019
From trading lines on a 1945 USO tour in Naples to comparing character notes in the Chelsea Hotel in the 1960s, Hazel and Maxine have stories to spare. Their lives revolve around the theater. They've performed for everyone from men all too happy for a wartime distraction to upper-class theater patrons who know the script better than the actors themselves; they can't imagine living without an audience. Though they weren't instant friends, Hazel and Maxine have learned to lean on each other through comedies and tragedies on and off the stage. But when Maxine reveals a secret that threatens the integrity of their livelihood, Hazel isn't sure if she can ever overcome the betrayal. Davis (The Masterpiece, 2018) writes this compelling portrait of female friendship through some of the most dramatic decades in history, weaving true events, romance, intrigue, and the long-felt effects of blacklisting. The scope and scale of this sweeping novel will please historical fiction aficionados and fans of Chris Greenhalgh's Seducing Ingrid Bergman (2012) and Alexander Rosenberg's The Girl from Krakow (2015).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)