Playland

Fitful, often contradictory memories of a former child film star's decade of fame and the cloaked brutality that surrounded her in the film industry give shape to Dunne's latest, enthralling novel, a tragic tale of behind-the-scenes Hollywood from the '30s to the present. Skillfully interweaving numerous small narratives, Dunne ( True Confessions ) explores the steep price of stardom, the potentially destructive power of storytelling (including filmmaking) and the illusory nature of truth. Screenwriter Jack Broderick, scion of a late Hollywood billionaire, has recently lost his wife in an automobile accident and is halfheartedly researching a movie when he finds Blue Tyler living in a trailer park outside Detroit. More than 40 years after leaving Hollywood--she was blacklisted as a Communist and grieving over the death of her flamboyant gangster lover--an impoverished Blue, though mildly delusional, still retains much of her glamorous charisma. Determined to solve the puzzle of Blue's contradictory versions of her life and the real reason for her disappearance, Jack pores over records and interviews other survivors of the era--each of whom, in turn, tells a slightly different account colored by self-interest. Dunne's ear for vernacular is as keen as ever, producing gritty, on-pitch, often funny dialogue. His sharp eye and his gift for the precise, almost journalistic detail evokes Hollywood in successive eras, and his characters are as vivid and memorable as any he has ever created. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Aug.)