May 30, 2022
Hart debuts with an intriguing kaleidoscopic look at a Hollywood scandal. The story unfolds over a single day from three women’s points of view. There’s Zanne Klein, 38, working as a personal assistant to director Ted Stabler; Ted’s wife, Holly; and Phoebe Lee, Ted’s first wife and former collaborator. Once a producer, Phoebe now teaches high school English. Her career shift seems to have stemmed from the fallout of a scandal involving Jerry Silver, a Harvey Weinsteinesque power player who had sexually harassed her. Holly, meanwhile, is the face of a new initiative meant to empower women filmmakers. The day culminates with an over-the-top party at the Stablers’ house overseen by Zanne, who, after eight years on the job, is hoping for a promotion. Hart’s incisive examination of sexual abuse in the entertainment industry resonates deeply as Zanne struggles to square her own ambition and livelihood with her moral compass, and Phoebe tries to make Ted understand the scope of the damage (“every time I have ever tried to take a step forward, on my own, without you, I get dragged back to that night”). Hart keeps up a brisk pace as Holly, Phoebe, and Zanne move toward a resolution regarding the Silver case. This strong outing satisfies.
June 1, 2022
Hart's debut novel is told over the course of a single day that affects the trajectories of three very different women. Zanne Klein is one of the many assistants to director-producer Ted Stabler, whose sf film trilogy made him a fabulously wealthy Hollywood power player. Today, Zanne is filling in for Ted's chief-of-staff, preparing for a major fundraising party Ted's wife, Holly, is putting on to benefit low-income mothers. The last thing Holly is expecting is to run into Ted's former producing partner, Phoebe Lee, who left Hollywood two decades ago after a devastating encounter with producer Jerry Silver, who has recently been outed by the #MeToo movement as a serial rapist. Phoebe wants to finally secure distribution for the movie she wrote and directed, a feature she had been planning to make before her career was derailed. As the story builds and the women start to uncover secrets Ted has been keeping for decades, the suspense builds. Hart has created an engrossing, piercing look at the compromises and choices women make to succeed and thrive.
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Starred review from June 1, 2022
Inside the perfectly curated fortress of privilege that is the estate of a Hollywood billionaire, threatening tremors of a #MeToo earthquake are felt. "Ted Stabler--the wunderkind who'd directed The Starfighter trilogy...was a late riser, but once he began his day he worked tirelessly, often until one or two in the morning. Teeing up the conditions he needed to task-shift seamlessly without squandering a minute would take all of Zanne's focus." Hart's knowing, ripped-from-the-headlines debut takes us behind the scenes of Ted's world on a day of reckoning--the day the Stablers host a "Bump and Pump" benefit for low-income women. Things get off to an inauspicious start when the party monkey pisses on the computer server, and sure enough, this is the day each of Ted's three wives (first wife, second wife, work wife) will watch the ugly truths of her position explode. Zanne Klein--described by her girlfriend as "Snow White, if Snow White was a daddy"--is the work wife, a queen bee in the hive of workers that includes everything from Ivy League graduates to a retired NFL star. Thanks to this group of people, Holly Stabler, Ted's second wife, spends her days in what looks like glamorous ease but is actually infantilized hell. "Joe paid her bills, Flora made her bed, Erin made her doctor's appointments and filled her prescriptions, Ilya and James drove her children to school, Katya packed their lunches, Mark hired and fired her household staff, Lau-ren tried on her clothes, Erin signed her name and imperson-ated her voice, Dawn and Zanne delivered her messages to Ted when he ducked her calls." Holly is one of the few who know that Ted was previously married to a Korean American woman named Phoebe Lee, now an English teacher in the Bay Area. Phoebe was co-producer of the first two Starfighter flicks, but the couple split up before following through on their plan to produce her passion project, and she dropped out of sight. Now, after 20 years, she's back in town. This book flies on a magic carpet of seamless, intricate detail, much of it from work experience the author acknowledges in an afterword. Whether we're dropping in on Holly with her glam squad or watching in wonder as headset-wearing assistants track the movements of their bosses like world leaders, there's never a moment's slip in authenticity or momentum. Riveting details of a fascinating hidden world support a ruthless takedown of misogyny and entitlement. One hell of a debut.
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