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In the barbed and wickedly witty style for which he is known, George Baxt has brought Marlene Dietrich to life in all her riveting charm, lively humor, and hausfraulich love of cooking."-BOOK JACKET. But while death may be a show-stopper in some houses, it makes Marlene a detective for the prosecution." "Marlene is convinced that the culprit lies among the astrologer's clientele of show-biz greats and political heavies, and with Dietrich determination, the screen siren takes on Hollywood gossips, European power brokers, and Nazi sympathizers in order to find a star-crossed killer. The only danger Marlene foresees avoiding is Groucho Marx after a bit too much revelry." "The danger, however, centers upon the astrologer herself, who upstages her hostess with a dire prediction about a new world war - and is subsequently murdered. Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford, and Jean Harlow are only a few of the luminaries who grace Marlene's star-studded guest list, and an astrologer's warning of danger serves only to heighten the Blue Angel's spirits. 1993. “New Year's Eve, 1931: Marlene Dietrich, as the reigning queen of Hollywood, sees fit to throw a royal bash in order to show off her legendary legs - and her secret-recipe potato pancakes. The Gross: The Hits, The Flops-The Summer That Ate Hollywood. Danger Duty & Disillusion : The Worldview of Los Angeles Policeīart, Peter. New York: Linden Press/Simon & Schuster, 1982.īarker, Joan C. Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. Equally good, if somewhat labored (Babitz's chief stylistic flaw is repetitiousness), is a pair of pieces about learning to tango, being swept up in the dance's ``fearless wrongness'': funny, philosophical (``Nobody `got on with their life' in Tango Argentina they preferred suffering in hell for all eternity''), and with desperate polish. Yet as dispensed as Babitz's people try to be, they never are far from their fears and insecurities-and her wisecracking, ain't-it-the-truth-honey voice is just about perfect in illuminating the fact. A number of the pieces revolve around the L.A.-based narrator's weakness for visiting male New York writers in the best of these, the title one, an effervescent affair is ruined when the narrator dares get something she wrote published for the first time (``Normal men aren't going to love anyone who looks forward to anything but them''). Here, though, as the narrator of these nine story/essays, approaches middle-age-after all the drugs, booze, groupie sex, and wild passionate flings-the sense of brakes applied (by 12-step-programs and simple aging) turns Babitz's voice sage as well as outrageous. Woman, 1982, etc.) is an acquired taste: her slewing style, bad-girl postures, and sad-funny takes on hedonism can be deliciously shocking but don't always blend-up right. 1993. From Kirkus Reviews: Babitz (Sex and Rage, 1979 L.A. Second Chances. New York: Random House, 1988Īppelman, William H.
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