House of Destiny

1995, Mira Books.  544 pages  (paperback only).  $5.99

Janet Leigh

 

Janet Leigh’s first novel covers familiar territory for her:  it concerns a resident of Sun Valley, Idaho, who finds his way to Hollywood and gradually rises in the film industry.  Leigh herself split her time between Beverly Hills and Sun Valley and gradually rose in the industry from a starlet to a respected actress, so she knew about what she wrote.

The story concerns the friendship between Sun Valley native Jude Abavas, who dreams of escaping his immigrant family’s life of sheepherding and farming, and Wade Colby, a handsome preppie who drifts through life until he finds success as an actor.  They meet and bond, forming a partnership that brings them each fame and fortune and sees them through personal disasters, marriages and heartbreak.

While Leigh’s writing style is not top-notch (the critic for Publisher’s Weekly noted it “veers between functional and bathetic”), I found this story completely engrossing.  Leigh blends fact and fiction deftly, particularly early in her telling of Wade Colby’s career.  Colby is a fictional actor, but he interacts with real Hollywood stars to create an intriguing, convincing film and TV career.  Later, when Leigh begins to dictate her characters’ key moments by the national tragedies of the 1960s, this blending becomes less effective.  Still, this technique helps anchor the fictional story in real history and puts things in historical perspective.

Leigh’s narrative is never sensational, yet plenty of life experience, Sun Valley history, behind-the-scenes views of Hollywood, character turmoil and an ever-present optimism regarding the future keep this novel solidly on track.  Jude Abavas proves himself to be a character worth following, and if at times he seems too good to be true, it should be remembered he is the moral compass of the piece.  It did surprise me that Leigh’s take on Hollywood isn’t more jaded and pessimistic, but that is simply not her style.  This isn’t a sunny, rose-colored view of glamourous Tinseltown, but rather a low-key, realistic glimpse of a town where people chase their dreams, and some of them succeed.

I found myself captivated by Leigh’s understanding of so many aspects of life.  Sometimes the morals imparted are a bit too obvious or the dialogue a little too stilted, but House of Destiny contains a great deal of wisdom and sense, told by someone who witnessed and experienced many of these events and emotions first-hand.  Her tale unfolds and builds dramatic power gradually, through the situations and characters she creates.  It’s not artificial like many Hollywood-set stories are; it bears the earmarks of fiction that lasts, in that its realistic approach compels one to read, and believe, until the final page.  Rating:  Good.

This review was originally written for and published in Filmbobbery, Volume 10, Issue 2 in 2008.