When Lardner was two, her father, David, a New Yorker
writer, was killed on assignment in wartime Germany. Her mother, Frances, then married David's brother, the screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. When he refused to define his relationship to the Communist Party before Congress, Ring was sentenced to a year in prison, leaving Kate, her two younger brothers and Frances to their own devices. Released in April 1951, Ring tried to dodge the shadow of the blacklist, but the family ultimately fled Hollywood for Mexico, then Connecticut, then New York City. By the late 1950s, adolescent Kate had discovered the bohemianism of Greenwich Village. She spent two years at college in the Midwest before returning to New York; she drifted into relationships with various men, including Tommy Lee Jones, who was then just beginning his career. Although her story vaults over the '80s and '90s, Lardner somehow lands on all fours with a few short, deft chapters that hint at the peace she made with each parent (after a few rough years during which "drugs and alcohol kept me from facing my life") and describe her father's death in 2000. Lardner descends from several generations of literary forebears and has inherited their talent by nature or nurture or both. Her book provides an unusual, child's-eye view on Hollywood in the McCarthy years and after. There's a quirky logic to the collage of excerpted letters and diary entries; Lardner interviewed many of the players for the book, but nothing's forced. This is Lardner's first book, but hopefully not her last. Photos. Agent, Liz Darhansoff. (On sale May 11)
Forecast:
Readers interested in this weighty period in American cultural and political history will be attracted to Lardner's memoir. Media and bookstore appearances in New York and L.A. will catch the attention of those readers.
