Glamorous Notions by Megan Chance

March 27, 2025

Glamorous Notions by Megan Chance

Elsie Gruner escaped her family’s hog farm in rural Ohio by eloping with an aspiring actor. They travel across the country to Hollywood, earning money by hustling players at pool halls. When they arrive in Hollywood, Elsie takes a job in a cafe while her husband Walt struggles to break into the movies. But Walt is just a hustler, a mediocre actor who only gets small parts. Elsie dreams of being a dress designer and she gets her chance  when she wins an internship to an American art school in Rome. But Elsie is soon swept up in a dangerous game that threatens to end her budding career almost before it starts.

The 1950s are one of my least favorite eras to read about, because of the paranoia, the persecution, and the super-rigid morality. Anyone who wasn’t mainstream was wrong - if you associated with anyone who had subversive views, your job and your future could be in serious trouble. Gossip could ruin your life. Elsie/Lena, the main character, is extremely naive and is caught up first by a con man and later by a spy ring. A little too much description of costumes and studio in-fighting and name dropping, which made the narrative drag. Disappointing, not as good as the author’s earlier books. 

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Film studio circa 1950