Queenie by Michael Korda (1985)

Queenie
by Michael Korda
Publisher:  Linden Press / Simon and Schuster
Copyright:  1985
Book Club Edition

At the heart of Michael Korda's dazzling new novel is a woman so beautiful that nothing can hurt her -- except her own past.

Dawn Avalon is a movie star of the first magnitude, the "Dream Princess," whose life, as it appears in the headlines and gossip columns, is the stuff of dreams.  Her perfect face -- the huge, dark eyes, the high cheekbones, the legendary serenity -- has brought her love, wealth, fame, even power.  For a whole generation, she has been the standard by which moviegoers measure beauty, glamour, style -- and happiness.

But behind the glitter of Dawn Avalon's life is the truth she has risked everything to conceal:  that she is, in fact, Quenie Kelley, a half-caste Indian girl from Calcutta, born into a society that had no place for her, and from which she escaped by a single, daring act which has shaped her destiny and which still casts the only dark shadow in a life of shimmering brilliance.

Michael Korda draws the reader into the mind and heart of Queenie, an innocent and startlingly lovely child, whose ambitious dream is spawned by an illicit passion she scarcely understands.  Her long journey from the suffocating slums of her childhood in the last days of the Raj to the white-hot blaze of fame takes her to the harsh underworld of London's seamy nightlife, where she is "discovered" by a brilliantly unscrupulous film producer; next, as his wife and star, to the fashionable social whirl of Mayfair just before the Second World War; finally to the conquest of Hollywood in its golden heyday -- and marriage to  dashing international financier, as handsome as he is notorious.  Through it all, Queenie is quick to learn from the men who would possess her; determined, whatever the sacrifice, to become her own woman -- to be Dawn Avalon.

It is only when she reaches the very center of power -- the boardrooms of Hollywood, the secret intrigues of high finance -- that her great success begins to breed powerful enemies.  Just as she is on the brink of achieving the security that has always eluded her, her past returns with a vengeance.

Under the threat of scandal and blackmail, Dawn learns too late that the traps set for her are of her own making -- that in leaning to outwit any man, she may have outwitted the only one she will ever love . . .

In the character of Queenie, Michael Korda has invented a heroine of complexity and thorough fascination; in the novel that bears her name, he has created his crowning achievement.

Condition:  Used.  Hardcover.  Dust cover is discolored and shows shelf wear, creasing and tears in the edges.  Pages are tanning from age.  Previous owner's name is blacked out on the front endpaper with the date written underneath.  There's an envelope pasted to the front endpaper as a way to keep track of her books.  Binding is in beginning stages of splitting in places throughout the books, but pages are in tact.

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