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Customer Reviews of Queenie

Excellent Read
This is one of my all time favorite books. It is a winding story that begins in India and takes you through the Golden Era of Hollywood. You really can't put it down. You love the heroine, depite her mistakes and flaws, and truly hate the villains. There are so many twists and turns. I highly recommend this book!

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CHIC OR CHI CHI?
I first read "Queenie" ten years ago. It was a sexy, spicy, great, warm splash of a read. Somehow the fact that it was the retelling of Merle Oberon's story eluded me. I enjoyed the book immensely, personally identifying with the heroine's struggle to discover exactly what mold she's "caste" in as well as her personal and political victories over prejudice & racism in the industry. Why read "Queenie" again?
One of the characters in a book I'm reading made reference to Miss Oberon's appearance as "Cathy" in "Wuthering Heights" commenting that "she didn't look CHI CHI,(Anglo/Indian) but she was you know." Checked out vitals on net and clicked with the fact that Ms. Oberon was first known as Queenie O'Brian. And was once married to someone named Alexander Korda (as in Michael's uncle). This book is probably closer to "the facts" than some of the Botox injected, pufferies that currently pass for biographies.

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Korda's admiring tribute to his "auntie" Merle
I have long been a fan of Merle Oberon, the exotically beautiful star during the golden age of Hollywood, so I was thrilled to read a fictionalized account of her life in this wonderful book. Michael Korda's admiration of Oberon, who was once the wife of his uncle Sir Alexander Korda--the renowned film producer--comes through in the character of Queenie Kelly/Dawn Avalon. I found it fascinating to compare what I knew about Oberon to Korda's creation of the Anglo-Indian Queenie. Oberon was born Merle Estelle Thompson O'Brien, the half-caste child of an Indian mother and Irish father. Like her fictional counterpart, to escape prejuduce and a nowhere future in India, she took off to England for a new life, where her light skin and exquisite and unusual beauty allowed her to "pass" and become a hostess at the celebrated Cafe de Paris under the pseudonym Queenie O'Brien (which is where Korda got the book's title). Here she was spotted by Alex Korda and the rest, as we say, is history! She went on to many marriages--the fictional Lucien Chambrun is obviously one of Merle's spouses, award-winning master cinematographer Lucien Ballard, and made-up Sir David Konig as Queenie's mentor and husband is Merle's real-life first hubby, the previously aforemention Sir Alex. Fictional Prince Charles Corsini is the counterpart of an Italian prince (I can't remember his name) that was the love of her life but who died in a crash when piloting a plane. Like Queenie too, Merle almost had her priceless beauty ruined and was in a near-fatal automobile crash. Needless to say, I found these parallels, among many others, fascinating as I think any Merle Oberon devotee would, and even if you're not a fan, it's still a fascinating read for anyone interested in the glamour machine of Hollywood in its heyday, a detailed, well-crafted novel by an insider, or a just plain mesmerizing real-life tale in fictional guise.