Mercury Pictures Presents

Product Information

Marra’s characters are wonderfully drawn. I felt for them. They come from around the world and end up in Los Angeles, but more specifically Hollywood. Some become new people before they arrive, others after they meet new employers and realize what is wanted or needed. Even now, a few days after I finished reading, I can see some of these people in my mind’s eye: one at her desk or with Artie, another always with his camera, still another working on the miniatures, and last, a man I came to really like talking with Bela Lugosi about life in Hollywood.

Review: “Mercury Pictures Presents,” by Anthony Marra - The

Not only is Mercury Pictures Presents a fabulous story, it’s Anthony Marra’s intriguing style of writing and his unlikely descriptions that makes the novel so entertaining and thought provoking. New York Times reviewer Matthew Specter provides this example from the book: A rusted-out rowboat decaying on a bank is presented as “a visual index of local fungi and a nursery for deciduous saplings.” Both clever and artful, Marra’s writing aptly reflects the characters of the story. Mercury’s films run afoul of isolationist America, and Artie is hauled in front of the Senate Investigation into Motion Picture War Propaganda. The premiere of Maria’s film, “Devil’s Bargain,” which retells Faust through the lens of Nazi collaboration, causes a riot; fortunately for Mercury, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor the next day, and Artie is hailed as a visionary.Funny, verbally inventive and, ultimately, very moving, Mercury Pictures Presents is a wonderful novel. The following is from Anthony Marra's Mercury Pictures Presents . Marra is the New York Times bestselling author of The Tsar of Love and Techno and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena , winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and longlisted for the National Book Award. Fifteen years later, on the eve of America’s entry into World War II, Maria is an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, trying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won’t speak to her. Her boss, a man of many toupees, has been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfriend, a virtuoso Chinese American actor, can’t escape the studio’s narrow typecasting. And the studio itself, Maria’s only home in exile, teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Fifteen years later, on the eve of America's entry into World War II, Maria is an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, trying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won't speak to her. Her boss, a man of many toupees, has been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfriend, a virtuoso Chinese American actor, can't escape the studio's narrow typecasting. And the studio itself, Maria's only home in exile, teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Marra sneaks into his fiction usually unlikely and unexpected humor. In Mercury Pictures Presents, it’s the pure borscht belt repartee between Artie Feldman, the co-founder and director of production of Mercury Pictures, and Maria Lagana, his underpaid and exploited Girl Friday: ”’How’m I looking?’ [Artie asks Maria] The truth was that Artie exceeded his protégé’s talent for euphemism. ‘You don’t look a day over twenty-five,’ she said. This elicited a rare grin from Artie. As a master bullshitter, he encouraged his apprentice’s efforts. Despite her sex and ethnicity, he knew Maria was, at heart, a Feldman Brother through and through. ‘I pay them to lie,’ Artie said, nodding in the direction of the accounting department. ‘I pay you to be honest.’ ‘Then you should pay me more.’”. Discussing Artie’s forthcoming testimony before a nativist congressional investigating committee, Maria volunteers: ”’Listen, how about I come with you to Washington?,’ she suggested. ‘We’ll prepare your opening statement on the flight in.’ ‘You really want to watch me get fed to the lions?’ ‘I’m from Rome. My people invented the sport’”

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra: 9780451495211

In Mercury Pictures Presents . . . the story moves between the real war and the better version Hollywood is busy creating. Sometimes tragic, often hilarious’ KAREN JOY FOWLER, Observer, Books of the Year I loved the first half of the book and thought it worthy of 5 stars. My enthusiasm waned as the book got lengthier and more involved. The book ended on a stronger note with its epilogue. The epilogue provided a satisfying closure to the novel; I enjoyed how it tied up loose threads about the more major characters and explained where they were in their lives. And Maria had evolved by then to have more warmth and charm. Let’s not get carried away. But I suppose that’s the impression we want to make on these East Coast bankers. It takes a genius to know when to be taken for a fool.”Themes of exile and imprisonment recur throughout the novel. How do different characters experience exile, both at home and abroad? How are invisible prisons different from real ones? All told, there are about twenty characters in the novel, each one connected in some way. An interesting figure is Anna Weber, who has emigrated from Berlin, Germany and is the studio's miniaturist. Anna purposely left Germany before the war started, due to its politics. A genuinely moving and life-affirming novel that’s a true joy to read.”—Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere The story develops slowly and there isn't a lot of plot but the author's wonderful descriptions bring this world to life. His characters are treated lovingly, they are flawed but caring – the villains are off-stage – and, despite conflicting emotions, try to help one another. Not everyone has a happy conclusion but alongside the sadness you are left with a connection to and understanding of these people.