Be Frank With Me
by Julia Clairborne Johnson
Allen & Unwin
Alice Whitley is an assistant at a New York publishing house when her boss sends her to Los Angeles. Her brief is to help run the house for reclusive author M M Banning (Mimi) who is writing a second novel. In her mansion in the wealthy suburb of Bel Air behind the stucco wall covered in razor wire, Mimi’s writing has stalled for decades but financial difficulties forced her to begin typing again.
Frank is her angelic-looking nine year old whose position on the Asperger spectrum means that he is an interesting character whose life has been extremely sheltered and has many challenges when trying to relate to the world. An old soul in a young body, he fashions his wardrobe from the 1930s films he consumes and it’s not hard to work out why he is not popular with other fourth graders at school.
There is no way that Alice is going to be able to monitor ultra-protective Mimi’s writing progress but her time is occupied by looking after Mimi’s unusual son. Frank is the most charmingly impossible nine-year-old you will ever meet, full of insight and unintentional humour, engendering equal parts of endearment and frustration.
Obsessed with finding out who Frank’s father is, Alice is pulled into the ‘only in Hollywood’ world of the reclusive writer and her unique son. Of course she finds out just as much about herself as the people around her as the emergence of the expected book is jeopardised.
Allen & Unwin as so sure the reader will fall in love with ‘Be Frank With Me’ that it has a money-back guarantee.
Lezly Herbert
