Lulu in Hollywood

I have wanted to read Louise Brooks's memoir Lulu in Hollywood since I read The Chaperone last August. Louise Brooks, lest you need a refresher, was a well-known actress of the 1920s and 30s, perhaps most famous for popularizing the highly scandalous bobbed haircut. Her memoirs are more forgettable. (Although she would recoil to hear them called that, having ended her non-memoirs with the line, "That is why I will never write my memoirs."I'm sorry to say, don't quite live up the hair.)

Brooks was born in Kansas, moved to New York at age 15, and was a major Hollywood star so there seemed to be potential, but...

Brooks finally lost me at the chapter devoted to Marion Davies' niece (that's actually the name of the chapter). Said niece was Pepi Lederer and Brooks takes her reader through the whole sad tale of Pepi's addictions and eventual suicide. In fact, most chapters focused on other people Brooks had known, but revealed little of her thoughts or emotions on the people or the events. I suppose she tried to warn her reader: these are not really her memoirs.

Did not finish.