Divine Sarah
A Novel
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Set over the course of one week in 1906, Divine Sarah reimagines the life of the legendary Sarah Bernhardt. Facing protests from the newly formed League of Decency, the controversial actress is forced to move her latest production from Los Angeles to the new development of Venice Beach. Though this battle is only the most recent skirmish in a tumultuous life, the sixty-two-year-old Sarah is exhausted and beginning to lose the will to fight.
Plagued by maladies of the flesh and the spirit, she begins to search her soul, revealing the truths of her life, including the self-doubt and insecurity hidden beneath an extravagant and confrontational lifestyle. Yet Sarah is not alone in her battle. Vince Baker, an ambitious news reporter, faces his own demons even as he tries to uncover the truth about the greatest actress of the Victorian Age.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Loosely based on real circumstance," Braver's poignant and inventive second novel (after Mr. Lincoln's Wars) follows a week in the life of internationally renowned stage actress Sarah Bernhardt. As the story opens, she is 61 and on what should be a glorious Farewell Tour of America, but her career is losing steam. There's word that her California stage performances have suddenly been relocated to Venice from Los Angeles, and to make matters worse, a conservative religious group has boycotted Bernhardt, dubbing her show "immoral and unfit for performing downtown." Never one to succumb to pressure, and always primed for scandal, the resilient Bernhardt goes fishing. Before a ravenous audience of 50 reporters, she catches a sea bass, cuts it open with her hotel key and mashes her face into the bloody viscera all "with a tragicomic smile." Bernhardt's antics are closely monitored by publicity guru Abbot Kinney and loving gay manager Max "Molly" Klein, who keeps her focused, protected and working harder than ever. Bernhardt's sudden mood swings are imagined with sympathetic verve and a light comical touch, but nothing rivals her cocaine-inspired Hamlet recitation to an enraptured Thomas Edison. As the novel closes, Bernhardt is still playing Marguerite Gautier in La Dame aux Cam lias, rapturously enjoying multiple curtain calls with a prosthetic leg at 76. Braver has produced a gracefully inspired story about the unavoidable effects of age on fame.
