The brunchers sit at sun drenched tables, measuring out their lives in green juices and matcha lattes, ordering egg white omelettes with half an avocado on the side. "Is this a California avocado?"
***
Arriving in Los Angeles intent on helping an unwell friend, our narrator contemplates the powerful magnetism of California. Like the gold-diggers, the health-seekers and the movie moguls before her, she had come to the state as a young woman to seek her fortune in ‘the industry’, but her dreams were not fulfilled.
What had become of the men who did not strike gold, those who could not be cured of their ailments, the ones who did not find fame? Where are the failures? Where are the women like her?
Before leaving London, her brother had said, “Most people would give an arm or a leg for a month in LA to revisit their youth. You are willing to give a kidney.”
Perhaps he was right. There are no heroes.
***
This book is set in Los Angeles, and the place is every bit as important as the plot or characters.
It is a thought provoking novel which poses some interesting questions, and considers some challenging themes. For example, what happens to those whose dreams have led them to LA and have then failed in their realisation?
The narrator, who is referred to as She throughout the book, highlights the realities of chasing her dreams as a young woman seeking to find fame in the film industry in Los Angeles. The book follows her experiences as she realises that her dreams will not be fulfilled.
The book also has much to say on the #MeToo movement, as the narrator tells the reader of the sexual harrassment she has endured in trying to succeed in the film industry.
The time span in the book moves between the past and the present. We find the narrator in the present day back in Los Angeles as a kidney donor. This process unleashes further complications and challenges that the narrator has to face.
It has been well written and is concise at just over 200 pages. It may be short novel but has much to recommend it.
ISBN: 978 1788648899
Publisher: Cinnamon Press
Formats: e-book and paperback
No. of Pages: 214 (paperback)
About the Author:
Kate Wilson is a writer and activist, and Prospects is her first novel.
She has worked in the film industry for more than 25 years and is a co-founder of the Call It! which enables film and TV industry workers to report incidents of harassment, bullying and abuse to executives or senior producers on their sets. Bosses receive an anonymised, top-level overview of what happened.
She lives in London with her daughters.
(book and media courtesy of Read Maxwell Communications)
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