Friday, February 22, 2019

Fiction Review: Finding Dorothy

I was intrigued by the premise of Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts, so I chose it as my January review book for Shelf Awareness. It far surpassed my expectations!

This magical, unique novel features parallel narratives. In one story, Maud Baum, widow of Frank L. Baum, gets involved with the making of the movie adaptation, The Wizard of Oz, of Frank's book in the 1930's. In the other, Maud is a child, growing up in the 1870's in upstate New York with her suffragette mother and kind father. The two stories alternate, so the reader goes along as Maud meets and marries Frank and they raise their children and also sees the details of their lives that made it into Frank's famous children's book...and eventually onto a Hollywood soundstage.

The novel is beautifully written, the characters are three-dimensional, the historical fiction is fascinating, and the behind-the-scenes details of a beloved Hollywood classic (one of my personal favorites) are such fun! I really loved this novel!

You can read my full review at Shelf Awareness.

368 pages, Ballantine Books


Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audio book - it sounds wonderful!


You can purchase Finding Dorothy from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

Or you can order Finding Dorothy from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

4 comments:

  1. How fun to see the connections between Oz and the author and his family. This sounds like fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lots of fun - and wonderful historical fiction, too!

      Delete
  2. Ooh, this sounds fascinating! I generally enjoy dual narrative historical fiction, books about women in history and books about authors, so this ticks lots of boxes for me :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, right! Then this one sounds right up your alley! I really enjoyed it.

      Delete