Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for gifting me a review copy of Red Letter Days by Sarah-Jane Stratford.

It took me a little while to get into this book and to like the main character (a young, female writer in 1950s New York) but once I did I was utterly hooked and couldn’t put it down. In fact, it’s one of those books that feels too long at the beginning but then is suddenly too short and you wish it would continue for another two-hundred pages.

Phoebe Adler finds herself on the communist ‘black list’ despite being apolitical and is fired from her job as a screen-writer. She ends up fleeing to London and trying to start over under a fake name. Her troubles end up following her though.

I’ve found myself thinking about the story and the characters frequently in the week since I finished it. Have you read any books lately that have just stayed with you?

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Synopsis:

A striking novel from the acclaimed author of Radio Girls about two daring women who escape McCarthy-era Hollywood for London, where they find creative freedom and fight the injustices of the Red Scare.

Nineteen-fifties America is bright and full of promise, and Phoebe Adler, a New Yorker brimming with talent and ambition, is forging her way as the rarest of things: a female television writer in Hollywood. But fears of a growing Red Menace cloud the optimism, egged on by the hate-mongering of Senator McCarthy. A blacklist is created to cast out communist sympathizers, smashing careers and ruining lives. When Phoebe finds herself caught in the hysteria’s web, she flees to London.

Though postwar London is struggling and work is precarious, Phoebe finds camaraderie with other Americans living in exile, including the restless and ambitious Hannah Wolfson. Determined to fight the injustices of the Red Scare, Hannah is a successful producer who hires blacklisted writers at great risk to her career and company.

Together Phoebe and Hannah successfully fight unfair bias and sexism, but danger still looms in this supposed sanctuary. And when their families and friends—their very lives—are threatened, they will have to make impossible choices.