The Seventh Veil of Salome is a historical fiction novel set in 1950s Hollywood written by master author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This is not a science fiction or fantasy novel but instead follows a bunch of characters working on or adjacent to a fictional 1950s movie in the "Sword and Sandals" genre (think Ben-Hur) which is based upon the New Testament story of Salome, the niece of Herod who asked for the head of John the Baptist*. While the story jumps between character viewpoints, it largely focuses upon Vera, a girl from Mexico who was randomly discovered to become the film's star actress despite no prior acting credits, and her struggles among hollywood, among her family, and in her own confusion about what she wants and parallels these struggles with those of Salome in the movie.
*As a Jewish reader not really familiar with the New Testament, I was not honestly familiar with this story, fwiw, and the book works fine without any foreknowledge.*
The result is a really interesting novel dealing with a number of themes - including oppression, parental pressure and emotional abuse, confusion about destiny and what one wants, class, love, and passion. The story's most prominent characters - Vera and a white girl named Nancy who has struggled and failed to reach a big role in Hollywood and, in cavorting with bad actors, finally reaches a breaking point - are done really well, and the story carries impressively towards the climax where you know something is going to go badly wrong. It's not a book that I loved or think is a must read, but it's another solid entry from Moreno-Garcia, who seems to write nothing other than such novels and is always worth picking up.
Plot Summary:
The Seventh Veil of Salome was to be genius director Max Niemann's magnum opus, the Sword and Sandals film that was going to stun the world. For years, Niemann has searched about the perfect actress to portray Salome, with no girl seemingly fitting his vision....until one of his agents spied Vera, a Mexican girl with no Hollywood experience, who was working in her uncle's dentistry office down in Mexico. Vera WAS Salome and so she was brought up to Hollywood....and this casting would set the stage for a tragedy.
For Vera was an innocent girl who was always looked down by her mother as the second favorite daughter and who was never expected to be a star. She knew nothing of Hollywood and its cruel ways, and of the ways men tried to prey on and exploit beautiful actresses...to say nothing of "exotic" Mexican girls who are even further looked down upon. And Vera herself isn't even sure that acting is what she wants - it was her sister's passion - or even what he wants other than the music she dreams about. Just like Salome herself, she finds herself adrift
And other girls would do almost ANYTHING to get the part Vera has landed.....
The Seventh Veil of Salome is told in large parts like it was a series of transcripts from people in a documentary recounting what happened around the titular movie. From this you can get a hint of what's to come from how people at some point in the future talk about things going wrong, even before what they mean is revealed. I say in part however because the book's three most frequent viewpoints - Vera's, Nancy's, and Salome's - don't work that way...each is written as if the story is taking place in the present day, with Vera and Nancy's viewpoints being about their own experiences around Hollywood as the movie gets slowly made. And then there's Salome's viewpoint, which pops in here and there and is seemingly meant to show the scenes being shot in the movie from Salome's perspective (as played by Vera) and makes Salome come off as alive, a real person, and allows Moreno-Garcia to contrast her with Vera's real struggles.
This works often very very well. Moreno-Garcia clearly has done the research in how to portray the inequities and wrongness of the 1950s Hollywood scene and how that greatly affected those who weren't White, Male, and Straight (there's a side character and minor star actor who gets temporarily exiled because of the gossip mags getting hint at him being gay), and how it forces those to be subservient to those in power....only to be spit up at a moment's notice when they're not of use - as Vera finds out when she realizes her one star role here isn't going to get her more than a standing shot in future films due to her ethnicity. You see how Vera has to deal with a prideful sexist entitled prig of a male actor and how he is able to make her life incredibly difficult through the gossip rags when she denies him, you see how Vera is verbally abused by the director of the film who thinks she looks perfect, even as the director knows the male star is a bigger problem, you see how people like Nancy, those with training and ideas and possibilities as actresses (although Nancy's skill is highly questionable) are basically given the slimmest of chances to make it and then thrown out the moment they don't. It's a gross system of the Hollywood past portrayed really well here.
And then there's our three main characters. Vera works really well as a relatable innocent although not wholly naïve (she is a bit) girl torn in all directions: She wants to prove herself on the set, but also isn't sure this is what she wants and thinks this was her sister's destiny, she struggles with the verbal abuse from her mother, who also thought this should be her sister's destiny, and to take control of her own life, and she struggles with love and passion and expressing herself even as she falls for a White Jazz Pianist from a wealthy family. And that confusion is mimicked in Salome, who finds herself torn between her infatuation with the preacher Jokanann and the ambitions of powerful men and her powerful greedy mother and finds a way to assert herself in the end - just as Vera does here. And then there's Nancy, the girl who thought she should be entitled to that part, who is racist as hell towards Vera, and who genuinely has issues with following through and not turning to dark grimy men and drugs whose presence would prevent her from getting much of a prestigious job anyway....and yet also is someone wronged by both the system and the father who discarded her when she didn't make it right away and is naturally jealous (if motivated by racism) of Vera.
All three characters are done really well, and it comes together in the tragedy you know must be coming.....except Moreno-Garcia alters the story just a little bit such that Vera, in the end (and Salome) gets a little bit of hopeful triumph, despite the best efforts of the others. A book worth your time in the end.
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