The Girl in White Gloves

January 1, 2020
Hollywood-royalty-turned-actual-royalty Grace Kelly is the subject of Maher's second novel (after The Kennedy Debutante, 2018). The narrative traces Kelly's life from her days as a young actress in New York, hungry for Broadway success, to her memorable turns in Hitchcock films and her Academy Award for The Country Girl (as well as her many discreet love affairs along the way), to her fairy tale wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, a marriage that ultimately leaves her feeling trapped and deeply unhappy. Kelly is a difficult subject for a novelist, given her public perception as an enigmatic ice queen, and Maher paints a portrait of a lonely woman desperate for the warmth of a loving family of her own and the stability this would offer, whose fixation on this fantasy leads her to trade a successful, fulfilling career for a dissatisfying marriage. Kelly still occasionally feels frustratingly inscrutable to the reader, but Maher's portrayal of this Hollywood icon is largely convincing, and there is much to relish about this well-researched, riveting tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)