Red Letter Days

Red Letter Days by Sarah-Jane Stratford, 384 pages

An up-and-coming screenwriter for a not-that-great crime show, Phoebe Adler is shocked when she's blacklisted. After all, she is just about the least political person ever, preferring to focus on her work and taking care of her sick sister, Mona. But blacklisted she is, and when she receives a subpoena to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Phoebe instead flees to England, where she can hopefully make enough money to be able to send some back to Mona. Enter Hannah Wolfson, a left-leaning journalist-turned-TV producer who is doing all she can to hire blacklisted writers at her new production company. She's convinced that HUAC can't touch them in England, but is she right?

This tale of two women dealing with the Red Scare and Hollywood blacklist is intriguing, and shows a side of this chapter in American history that isn't normally illuminated--that of the women impacted in this 20th Century witch hunt. I enjoyed the book, much more so when I read the afterword, which explains that Hannah is based on a real woman, Hannah Weinstein. A fun read for those who like headstrong women and historical fiction.

Who is Vera Kelly?

Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht, 266 pages.

We meet Vera when she has disappointed her mother. Vera has been kicked out of school, institutionalized, and disowned. We meet her again nine years later in Buenos Aires working for the US, evaluating opposition to Argentine leadership.
Knecht does a great job with the sense of time and place, convincing the reader (or at least a sometimes inattentive reader like myself) that this is 1966 Argentina.
Vera is an interesting character, too. She is alone in the world, seemingly always will be. While she is more comfortable with herself and her sexuality in Greenwich Village, she gives us the idea that she is always detached from others. The story moves along nicely, jumping back and forth between her younger years in New York and the turmoil in Argentina.
I listened to this through our Overdrive collection.
Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers.