Lulu in Babylon

Jumbled plot lines bog down Silver's debut novel about a teenager's first experience of life in Hollywood. Lulu Flintridge is 15 and furious that she's spending the summer in Los Angeles with her father, Oscar-winning director Milo Flintridge, whom she barely knows. Milo, son of the late film mogul Abe Flintridge, is keen to bond with his daughter and suggests they read and discuss his father's diaries of 1950s Hollywood. After meeting former studio head Ben Robbins on a yacht, Lulu reluctantly enters the spinning social spheres of Hollywood. Ben and Lulu begin spending more time together; he is desperately trying to get the first project for a new independent production company off the ground, and the two begin to learn just how unpopular he is in the business. Silver successfully captures the insular nature of the film industry by shuffling the same cast of characters%E2%80%94including Ben, Lulu, and Milo%E2%80%94through a constant string of parties, dinner meetings, screenings, and shared vacations. However, the sheer number of extra characters%E2%80%94who all come complete with detailed backstories, even if they're mentioned in only one scene%E2%80%94makes it difficult to develop emotional attachments to timid, earnest Lulu and the detestably tenacious Ben. Silver occasionally strikes the wrong tone in the diary chapters, but the central plot, spanning decades of social life and the merry-go-round of names, studios, and events, makes the novel a fine facsimile of the inner workings of Hollywood. (Apr.)