The Magnificent Esme Wells
Summary (from the publisher): From the nationally bestselling author of The True Memoirs of Little K, a deeply felt and historically detailed tale of family, loss, and love, told by an irrepressible young girl—the daughter of a two-bit gangster and a movie showgirl—growing up in golden-age Hollywood and Las Vegas in its early days
Esme Silver has always taken care of her charming ne’er do well father, Ike Silver, a small-time crook with dreams of making it big with Bugsy Siegel. Devoted to her daddy, Esme is often his “date” at the racetrack, where she amiably fetches the hot dogs while keeping an eye to the ground for any cast-off tickets that might be a winner. In awe of her mother, Dina Wells, Esme is more than happy to be the foil that gets the beautiful Dina into meetings and screen tests with some of Hollywood’s greats.
When Ike gets an opportunity to move to Vegas—and what could at last be his big break, to help the man she knows as “Benny” open the Flamingo hotel—life takes an unexpected turn for Esme. A stunner like her mother, the young girl catches the attention of Nate Silver, one of the Strip’s most powerful men.
Narrated by the twenty-year-old Esme, The Magnificent Esme Wells moves between pre-WWII Hollywood and post-war Las Vegas—a golden age when Jewish gangsters and movie moguls are often indistinguishable in looks and behavior. Esme’s voice—sharp, observant, with a quiet, mordant wit—chronicles the rise and fall and further fall of her complicated parents, as well as her own painful reckoning with love and life. A coming of age story with a tinge of noir, and a tale that illuminates the promise and perils of the American dream and its dreamers, The Magnificent Esme Wells is immersive, moving, and compelling.
Esme Silver has always taken care of her charming ne’er do well father, Ike Silver, a small-time crook with dreams of making it big with Bugsy Siegel. Devoted to her daddy, Esme is often his “date” at the racetrack, where she amiably fetches the hot dogs while keeping an eye to the ground for any cast-off tickets that might be a winner. In awe of her mother, Dina Wells, Esme is more than happy to be the foil that gets the beautiful Dina into meetings and screen tests with some of Hollywood’s greats.
When Ike gets an opportunity to move to Vegas—and what could at last be his big break, to help the man she knows as “Benny” open the Flamingo hotel—life takes an unexpected turn for Esme. A stunner like her mother, the young girl catches the attention of Nate Silver, one of the Strip’s most powerful men.
Narrated by the twenty-year-old Esme, The Magnificent Esme Wells moves between pre-WWII Hollywood and post-war Las Vegas—a golden age when Jewish gangsters and movie moguls are often indistinguishable in looks and behavior. Esme’s voice—sharp, observant, with a quiet, mordant wit—chronicles the rise and fall and further fall of her complicated parents, as well as her own painful reckoning with love and life. A coming of age story with a tinge of noir, and a tale that illuminates the promise and perils of the American dream and its dreamers, The Magnificent Esme Wells is immersive, moving, and compelling.
Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins.
In this novel, Esme Wells tells her story of growing up in golden-age Hollywood in the 1930s and Las Vegas in its early days in the late 1940s and 1950s. Told in alternating chapters between Hollywood, where Esme spent her young childhood and Las Vegas, where she came of age, Esme describes her family's scrappy existence: her mother constantly seeking Hollywood fame that alluded her and her father always hoping to make it rich through gambling and serving as a gopher to more powerful mobsters. Esme's coming of age story is one of constant pursuit of the American dream, as well as the dark underbelly of the search for fame and fortune.
It was an interesting choice to have Esme narrate her own story in two narrative threads rather than chronologically. Not only did this allow Sharp to build momentum in the two separate periods of Esme's life, but it also makes it starkly clear how distinctly Esme's life is broken into separate periods. When Esme and her father leave Hollywood, in many ways Esme leaves behind her childhood and enters a new phase of heightened subterfuge, of fudging on her age to serve cocktails and dance in shows, of interacting with powerful men who kill those that have displeased them.
Sharp did a great job of crafting a narration that generates sympathy for Esme without the character herself exuding self-pity. It's very clear that her childhood was overwhelmed by a mother who had motherhood foisted upon her and that Esme was largely neglected, a reality that is revealed through details such as Esme sharing that the lady who sold hotdogs at the racetrack "even washed my face with a soapy dish towel" (36). Despite her parents' overwhelming attention being on their own individual pursuits, Esme comes across as a devoted girl who delights in making her family happy. In comparison to her life in Vegas, where Esme must use her face and body to survive, this early and troubled childhood comes across as a fantasy time.
This novel was well researched and covers an interesting time in history with the rise of Las Vegas and the Jewish mafia. And yet, there was something missing from this novel for me. The characters lacked depth and emotional complexity, especially her parents who loom large in the novel and should feel well fleshed out. Esme feels very passive and relays her story and her choices without a real sense of emotional response to any of it. Overall the novel was well written and well researched, just missing more vivid characterization.
Stars: 3
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