Did You Hear about Kitty Karr?: A Novel

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Propulsive and entertaining, with broad historical relevance and critical cultural significance, this is the uniquely American story we all need to read—it holds a piece of all of us. As the pieces came together connecting these 2 timelines, the story really captured my heart and opened up a lot of questions about everything we inherit due to our family, race, and gender. Paul’s narrative circles back to trace Kitty’s coming-of-age story and her ascent to the starry stratosphere she reached in the 1950s. This author has given readers an extremely interesting storyline that can be discussed for quite some time. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could―and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty.

I can only hope that further revisions were made between the advanced copy I received and the final publication. There was some drama between Elise and her fiancé, and a romantic plot with Elise and another man, and which distracted from what I was really interested in, which was Elise’s relationship with her sisters and her personal response to Kitty’s death. Kitty had written out twenty-five invitations to her own memorial service for her lawyer to mail after her death.is reminiscent of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Vanishing Half, both of which I highly recommend. It was no easy feat competing with politics, and the pause in presidential tweet reports spoke to the breadth of Kitty’s legacy. Really, it was closer to a billion; the reports got it wrong because the leaked documents only listed Kitty’s personal assets.

Paul's debut is a riveting, often heartbreaking tale that explores race, privilege, and celebrity in America through the eyes of a one-of-a-kind character. Though Paul crowds the narrative with far too many underdeveloped characters and makes a few too many implausible plot leaps, she ably describes Kitty's transformation and unflinchingly details the racism, misogyny, and exploitation Kitty faced as a young woman. Elise is preoccupied with managing her image and avoiding the paparazzi, until the death of neighbor Kitty Karr, Elise’s beloved mentor, who leaves a fortune to Elise and her two sisters. In the 1950s, daughter Mary graduates high school, assumes a white persona, and starts working in Hollywood where she encounters many people with their own secrets.

A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz. John, one of three sisters who have been rich and famous since birth because of their parents' talents. Giovanni, happy to flee cold Canada, had donned Bermuda jean shorts and a cropped, open-backed fuzzy violet sweater that displayed her ebony skin. But that doesn’t stop Elise from being under an immense amount of pressure to answer their questions.