My Hollywood, Mona Simpson
My Hollywood, Mona Simpson
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My Hollywood

Author: Mona Simpson

Narrator: Bhama Roget

Unabridged: 14 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/01/2010

Synopsis

Claire, a composer and a new mother, comes to Los Angeles so that her husband can follow his dream of writing television comedy. With Paul working all hours and Claire left with the baby, William, whom she adores but has no idea how to care for, they hire Lola, a fifty-two-year-old mother of five who works in America to pay for her own children’s education back in the Philippines. Lola stabilizes the rocky household, and other parents try to lure her away. What she sacrifices to stay with Claire and William remains her own secret.

About Mona Simpson

Mona Simpson’s books include Anywhere but Here, The Lost Father, and A Regular Guy. She was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and has won the Whiting Writer’s Award, a Guggenheim Grant, the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Foundation. She has taught at Bard College since 1988.

About Bhama Roget

Bhama Roget has been acting in Seattle for over twelve years. She has been seen in several productions at the Seattle Rep, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and the Empty Space Theatre. She has appeared on television in The Fugitive and on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and can currently be seen on the hit internet comedy cooking show Cookus Interruptus.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Susan

My Hollywood is a soulful, insightful journey through the worlds of motherhood and caregiving in "Hollywood," (which is really Santa Monica, CA). Told alternately from the points of view of a Filipina nanny (Lola) and the young mother she works for (Claire), the story takes place during the 1990s, a......more

Goodreads review by christa

On their first date, Paul and Claire have already divvied the responsibilities of keeping their careers and managing a child: The former as a TV comedy write; the latter as a classical composer. "50/50," Paul tells her -- which in retrospect becomes the laughable math of a man who will spend 14 hours......more

Goodreads review by Judy

This amazing novel devoured me as I devoured it. I was confined to bed, recovering from a virus but finally able to read; the perfect excuse to do what I spend most of my time doing anyway, but in this case purely for my own enjoyment. There was so much to enjoy. Claire, new mother, wife of an aspi......more

Quotes

“Simpson works habitual magic, showing how love travels, ownerless and unbidden, among children who need adults and adults who need children.” New York Times Book Review

“It takes a very subtle, sophisticated, and confident writer to make our most common problems come off as unique on the page as they feel at three in the morning.” Los Angeles Times

“This is a domestic novel and a highly political one.” Time

“It takes a very subtle, sophisticated, and confident writer to make our most common problems come off as unique on the page as they feel at three in the morning.” Los Angeles Times

“Beautifully realized…One of the most insightful books in years about contemporary American life.” San Francisco Chronicle

“The real richness of My Hollywood lies in Simpson’s gift for conveying enormous meaning in moments depicted so prosaically that they don’t reveal their significance at first glance.” Boston Globe

“This is classic Simpson…The most serious and potent truths are told.” O, The Oprah Magazine

“A hilarious and heartbreaking take on the real housewives of Southern California.” Marie Claire

“Writing in both women’s voices, Simpson deploys a sharp eye and mordant wit to show us the backstairs view of a Hollywood we’ve never seen.” More magazine

“In Mona Simpson’s new novel about a modern marriage and its discontents, the saga of its Filipina domestic sketches a new variation on the American dream…An intimate, ironic tale.” Elle

Awards

  • San Francisco Chronicle Best Book
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