Book Summary and Reviews of L.A. Women by Ella Berman

Reader Reviews

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Sherrie Y. (Aurora, CO)

Gritty portrait of friendship in mid-century LA
Wow, I would never have picked this up if it weren't for BookBrowse! This story about two L.A. women circling around each other throughout the 60s and 70s brought me right into the heart of L.A. in those times. The gritty nature of the party scene, rich people behaving not so well, the culture of being constantly surrounded by beautiful, famous people.

Throughout the years of their on-again/off-again friendship, Lane and Gala revolve around each other in ways that are not healthy for either of them. Lane is traumatized from her horrible childhood and struggling with knowing what she wants in life. She is a successful author, but can not figure out how to love. Gala is a wild card, the party girl of L.A. who knows everyone and in love with one of the most famous lead singers of the era. Gala knows what love is, but what will she do to keep it?

I said this was gritty and it is. It feels hazy, dark, and ethereal at times. I just loved the feeling the book evoked and could not put it down until I knew what became of Lane and Gala.

Becky S. (Springfield, MO)

Love -Hate relationship
This was a love hate relationship for me as well as the characters in this book! I loved how I felt the main characters, Lane and Gala, each had 2 very different sides to their personalities. Each of them made me feel so many emotions while reading this book... empathy, anger, sadness, happiness.... all the feels! I thought it was a great telling of how women treat each other. Even though it took place 50 years ago, I think the feelings can still be the same.

We should be building each other up, but sometimes jealousy and judgement sneak in , and we end up tearing each other down instead. This book kept me engaged from the very beginning, and I hope to read more from this author in the future!

Elizabeth D. (Apple Valley, MN)

Friendship is complicated
I was absorbed by this book from the start. It is about two women in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s who form an uneasy friendship. Point of View changes from Lane to Gala, occasionally to other characters, and is dual timeline, switching back and forth between current day (with current day being the 1970s) and ten years earlier - at least at the start; each time we switch back to the earlier timeline, time has moved forward until the two timelines converge. If this sounds complicated, it isn't; at least, I didn't find it so.

The characters in this book are so well drawn: their drive for success, intelligence, and sense of self, but their foibles, their petty jealousies and insecurities, too. I feel like I know them intimately, as friends, or at least as close to friends as they know how to be.

While I feel like this was a strong character study of these two women as they navigated the roles available to women in the 60s and 70s, the assumptions made about women who didn't fit those roles, how these two had to contort themselves to conform at times, and how they were viewed (and how their lives were sometimes constrained) vis-a-vis the men in their life, there were still some very strong plot points, one of which shifted my entire view of the character and how I felt about some of her decisions. I hate to be vague, but I also don't want to drop any spoilers.

While there is a missing person/mystery element to the book, I wouldn't categorize this as a mystery, as there's really no elements of detection in the typical fashion.

I'm struggling to think of a book I've read with a similar friendship to the one between Lane and Gala. I also feel like they're characters I rarely see, if at all (in the case of Gala) in books I've read.

I think this book would appeal to people interested in unconventional female friendships, women's lives in the 1960s and 1970s, the Los Angeles scene in the 1960s and 1970s

It covers many different topics, including female friendships; artistic integrity; uncredited artistic work/artistic ownership; motherhood; addiction; limits of responsibility for another person; women working; changing expectations for appropriate behavior as women age; childhood trauma and its impact on people as adults; husband/wife relationships; friendships between women and gay men; gay men in 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles; how to be true to yourself; and more.

Thank you very much to BookBrowse and Berkley for this Advanced Reader's Copy. I will be thinking about Lane and Gala for a long time to come.

Gina D. (Chicago, IL)

LA Women Isn't All Sunshine, But It's Worth the Read!
A book with "LA" in the title suggests that the reader can expect unrelenting sunshine and sandy beaches to dominate the sense of place and time. This book is not a frothy beach read, though.

This novel tells the story of the complicated relationship of two women, Lane and Gala -- both considered literary darlings reflecting everything the Los Angeles of the late 1960s/1970s is supposed to be. Although they are both writers who share their sense of ambition, their personalities could not be more different. Both women struggle to find happiness, and it's the examination of their similarities and differences that makes for an intriguing read.

Kathleen W. (Appleton, WI)

L.A. Women by Ella Berman
L.A. Women by Ella Berman is a well-written novel focusing on two very different women writers whose lives intersect in Hollywood during the 1970s

This is a difficult review for me to write. I was expecting to love this book but I did not. It contained many elements that I am fond of: woman writers, the 1970s, Hollywood friendships, etc. So why the disappointment? I just didn't like any of the characters including the Hollywood scene of the 1970s. It is difficult for me to like a character-driven book when neither of the two protagonists are likeable.

I kept reading because I liked many of the descriptions and because I was hoping to find some character growth or resolution. I'm not sure if my disappointment in the book was because of the unlikeable characters or because I kept hoping for what didn't exist.
I raised my rating to good even though I didn't particularly enjoy it because it was well written and raised some interesting issues.

This is the kind of book that would be great for book clubs. Women's friendships, ambition and competition, the lives of writers, and mother-daughter relationships are all topics that could result in interesting discussions.

Dianne

Drugs, sex, rock n roll among friends
L.A. Woman by Ella Berman is a book about friendship, addiction, co-dependency and excesses. It drew me in and occasionally threw me out. Lane and Gala are drawn to each other and repeatedly betray that friendship. Lane sabotages Gala’s writing career and completely fails to provide any support after the tragic death of her rocker husband-Gala appears at Lane’s carefully orchestrated Sunday soirees, often high, and disturbs the atmosphere and eventually sleeps with Scotty, Lane’s husband, and financially blackmails him. What is the old adage “with friends like this who needs enemies”.

I found the story very readable but a good editor might streamline some of the repetitive scenes, especially the debauchery surrounding Gala. I got it, she is stunning, brilliant but terribly troubled. I also understand both women came from backgrounds that left them both with scars, but again, I got it. Overall, it is more than a beach read and less than a meaty historical fiction novel. I enjoyed it.

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