Silver Salts

by Mark Blagrave

Shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Novel
Shortlisted for the 2009 Atlantic Book Awards Margaret and John Savage First Book Award

Lillie Dempster of Saint John, New Brunswick, often imagines herself on the big screen. It is the one fantastic escape she can afford from her tragic daily life. In the burgeoning early years of the twentieth century, Lillie is a lot like the distressed damsels from the silent films she loves. Orphaned by the Great War and the Spanish influenza at fourteen, Lillie is forced to move in with her upstairs neighbour, Frank. She finds, however, that life does not get much better as a pretty young girl who draws unwanted interest from men wherever she goes. When a group of filmmakers come to town to shoot a movie, she finally has the opportunity to live her film fantasies. Lillie makes her debut as a silent actress, standing in for the often temperamental Norma Shearer. Finding she has a future in Hollywood, Lillie makes her way west, but as she quickly learns, life in the spotlight is not always the glamour and glitz she thought it would be. Mark Blagrave delivers a novel that illustrates life on the east coast at the turn of the century, showing the onrush and upheaval of the modern world through the emergence of unions and social unrest, the horrors of the First World War, and the wonders of ever-evolving technology.

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2008

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lillie, the main protagonist is both incredibly strong and independent, and tragically damaged. Her life combines the height of glamour and the seedy dispair of the underprivileged, yet she transcends both, and creates her own destiny. Saint John, NB, is a character in its own right, portrayed lovingly with all its beauty and flaws. Beautifully written.

[Dave Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set against the Spanish Flu pandemic and the roaring 20's in Saint John and then Hollywood. After a tumultuous adolescence and early adulthood, the heroine is swept up into the glamour of the early days of pre-Code Hollywood.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silver Salts by Canadian author Mark Blagrave takes place during and after World War One in Saint John, New Brunswick and, believe it or not, Hollywood. Who knew that those places would have much of a connection, but in this novel they certainly do. Mark takes us from childhood to adulthood, from crumbling apartments to the shinning lights of silent Hollywood films, from disease to strength, with all the emotions, conflicts and acceptance that comes with telling a good story. The main character, Lillie, can be a little to "real" for those who prefer a bit less description and commentary with their fiction, but only because the subject matter can be dark and sad, in other words, real. Her story is imaginative and her journey unexpected. The book was enjoyable and made unforgettable by it's honesty.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anotther New Brunswick author, I seem to be on a local author kick. Interesting because the setting is in Saint John in the era of the WWI and twenties. The first part of the book was great, but for me it fizzled in the middle-end.

[Jen]

http://kirbc.com/2008/11/17/silver-sa...

[Philip Glennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.textsandpleasure.com/2012/...

[Jazz Age Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG, so good! kind of like a tree grows in brooklyn....amazing!