The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin

On Monday, July 1st, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin.  Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

• The majority of the group enjoyed this book. It is one of those books that you start off thinking, I’m not going to like this, and by the end of first part you’ve changed your mind.
• The group enjoyed all the insights into how the movie business was developed and who was involved. Unfortunately one member lost interest when the romance stories began.
• We were impressed with Mary Pickford. She was a woman working in a male dominated industry and fought to create her own destiny while being bullied and belittled. We were also impressed with her work ethic and her ability to write her own scenes and then edit the finished product.
• We talked about the casting couch and how it has taken 100 years for things to start to change. The group was not surprised when it was mentioned that Woodrow Wilson pinched Mary Pickford. One member thought that things will not change in Hollywood until more women are in positions of power.
• We also learned that the same type of treatment was shown to woman in the army during the Great War. It seems that change is slowly happening there too.
• We understood that Mary was the first female actor to be type casted and how that image could be an actor’s downfall.
• We wondered why the author chose to tell the story of Francis in first person and Mary in third person. We thought it might have been because Francis was also an author and Benjamin thought Francis was capable of writing her own story while Mary needed to have someone write her story for her. Unfortunately it came across as Francis being confident and Mary having some issues.
• We talked about the ending and how the relationship between Francis and Mary went through a number of changes. We agreed that we liked the way Francis decided to just be Mary’s friend instead of trying to rescue her.
• One member recommended a few historical fiction books about women’s lives that she thought had much stronger writing.
• We appreciated all the research that went into writing this book and also appreciated the Author’s Note where she explains what was made up and what happened in real life.
• The group agreed that books like this encourages you to do more research on the novel’s subject. One member highly recommended watching Mary Pickford and Francis Marion’s The Poor Little Rich Girl.

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.