A night with Audrey Hepburn
Lucy Holliday
I picked the book up for the title, as I’m a Audrey Hepburn fan. It intrigued me.
The basic plot is as follows: a jobbing actress Libby adores actresses of the fifties and sixties, inspired in part by her father’s interest, and is living a life that’s not satisfying her. She’s working on a soap opera, and suffers a embarassing accident in front of a famous and handsome actor named Dillon O’Hara. When she gets home that night, she watches Breakfast at Tiffany’s again, and then sees Audrey Hepburn, in Holly Golightly’s costume. Audrey keeps popping up and offering Libby advice about her love life, fashion and other issues.
It’s funny, and Holliday is clearly just as much of a fan of Hepburn as her character is. She describes different costumes of Hepburn’s, and captures the life, and energy that Hepburn displayed in each film role.
It’s not quite as involving as one that I read using Mr Darcy in the same way, but it’s a easy and nice read. It’s nice that Holliday chooses to have Libby end up in a relationship with Dillon, rather than taking the easier and more telegraphed route of having her end the book with her childhood friend Olly, who has a crush on her.
Holliday has already written the next book, which revolves around Marilyn Monroe in a similar role in Libby’s life, and I will be reading that, to see whether she can carry on the same breezy style, but still put in details about the actress, that aren’t very well known.
Musings of a thirtysomething woman 