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Summary
Summary
May Anna Kovacks was discovered on the dustry streets of Butte, Montana and went on to become a Hollywood star. War, fame, marriage, love, and heartbreak came and went. What never changed was the bond she shared with her two best friends, Effa Commander and Whippy Bird. When scandal, murder, and betrayal made a legend of May Anna, only Effa and Whippy Bird could set the record straight.
Author Notes
Sandra Dallas graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in journalism and began her writing career as a reporter with Business Week.
While a reporter, she began writing nonfiction which include Sacred Paint, which won the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Western Heritage Wrangler Award, and The Quilt That Walked to Golden, recipient of the Independent Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award.
Turning to fiction in 1990, Sandra has published a number of novels including Buster Midnight's Cafe, Alice's Tulips, and Prayers For Sale. She is the recipient of the Women Writing the West Willa Award for New Mercies, and two-time winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award, for The Chili Queen and Tallgrass. In addition, she was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award, the Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association Award, and a four-time finalist for the Women Writing the West Willa Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
YA-- A story of three tough, courageous women who stuck together. Effa Commander is now in her 70s but she vividly remembers her youth, growing up in Butte, Montana with her best friends Whippy Bird and May Anna. May Anna eventually goes to Hollywood and becomes a famous movie star and is involved in a notorious murder trial after her boyfriend, the heavyweight boxer Buster Midnight, kills a British actor, ending both the actor's career and his own. May Anna never forgets her friends, however, and sends flowers when Effa Commander's babies die and she loses her husband in the war. Whippy Bird's husband dies in that same war. Effa Commander paints a colorful, humorous, almost innocent picture of Montana, prohibition, and early Hollywood. A book that is truly offbeat but appealing. --Diana C. Hirsh, Prince George's County Memorial Library System, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Narrator Effa Commander's rollicking reminiscences about movie star Marion Street and her devoted lover, champion boxer Buster Midnight, are recounted in a sharp and snappy voice that captures the reader's interest on the very first page of this amusing novel. Effa Commander and lifelong friend Whippy Bird shared childhood, adolescence, Prohibition and many other experiences with Marion and Buster in their hometown of Butte, Mont. They also know much more about the Hollywood scandal called the ``Love Triangle Murder'' than ever got into the papers, and Effa Commander has decided to vindicate her friends' misrepresented lives. Dallas's first novel depicts a remarkable cluster of enduring friendships that may strike the modern urban reader as implausible, but accurately reflect the flavor of a small town and its inbred relationships. If the denouement seems predictable, Dallas, whose work calls to mind Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe , is nonetheless a stylist to be reckoned with. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Whimsical first novel in which an elderly Montana woman--who deplores being quoted for ""local color""--serves up plenty as she tells how an old friend went from hooker to Hollywood legend. Back in old-time Butte, in the days before WW II, smoke from the smelters often turned the sky dark even at noon, children played on mine dumps, and Effa Commander, Whippy Bird, and May Anna Kovaks--the trio soon to be known as the Unholy Three (May Anna soon to become the actress Marion Street)--became best friends. Years later, Effa Commander is prodded by Whippy Bird into setting the record straight after a book presents a distorted picture of Marion Street's early years--and of the Tinseltown Love Triangle that led to a fatal shooting for which Buster Midnight, Butteborn heavyweight champ and long-suffering lover of Marion, went to prison. There's a small-town innocence to Effa Commander's account as she records childhood memories and tells of Marion's and Buster's rise to fame: she can talk about Prohibition bootlegging and May Anna turning out as a prostitute and still sound rather wholesome. Over the years, all of the characters suffer loss--Effa Commander loses her babies; both she and Whippy Bird are widowed by the war; Buster loses Marion and his career; Marion in Hollywood seems to lose her soul--but love, devotion, and friendship see them through, while memories of growing up together remain a touchstone for all. Good-humored and harmless, best for its picture of Butte. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In this her first novel, Dallas introduces an unholy trio--May Anna, Whippy Bird, and Effa Commander--who live in Butte, Montana. Their girlhood vows of lifelong loyalty are maintained, even though one of them goes on to become a movie star (a la Marilyn Monroe) while the other two stay home to run a diner. At times, Dallas allows a touch of ridicule to creep into her descriptions of Effa and Whippy Bird's attire and behavior, especially when they visit their friend in Hollywood; nevertheless, there's plenty of genuine humor here and a scandal to boot. Dallas' novel sounds remarkably like Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe [BKL S 1 87]. Unfortunately, it lacks the intricacy of that novel's plot and subplots, which zinged along in several different eras at once. Comparison to Flagg's excellent novel aside, Dallas' first fiction presents a fine story; its depiction of life in the Northwest is funny, sad, poignant, and often surprising. --Denise Perry Donavin
