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Published Nov 2014
352 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
New York in the late 1980s. Ceinwen Reilly has just moved from Yazoo City, Mississippi, and she's never going back, minimum wage job (vintage store salesgirl) and shabby apartment (Avenue C walkup) be damned. Who cares about earthly matters when Ceinwen can spend her days and her nights at fading movie houses - and most of the time that's left trying to look like Jean Harlow?
One day, Ceinwen discovers that her downstairs neighbor may have - just possibly - starred in a forgotten silent film that hasn't been seen for ages. So naturally, it's time for a quest. She will track down the film, she will impress her neighbor, and she will become a part of movie history: the archivist as ingénue.
As she embarks on her grand mission, Ceinwen meets a somewhat bumbling, very charming, 100% English math professor named Matthew, who is as rational as she is dreamy. Together, they will or will not discover the missing reels, will or will not fall in love, and will or will not encounter the obsessives that make up the New York silent film nut underworld.
A novel as winning and energetic as the grand Hollywood films that inspired it, Missing Reels is an irresistible, alchemical mix of Nora Ephron and David Nicholls that will charm and delight.
"Starred Review. Nehme seamlessly weaves film titles, trivia and technical lore into her debut novel. Her pacing is exhilarating... Ceinwen and Matthew patter at a speed Katherine Hepburn would admire. Simply grand; this tale begs to be filmed." - Kirkus
"Nehme snares the reader with dry wit, portraits of film stars of the past, and dynamic, unconventional protagonists." - Publishers Weekly
"With breakneck, back-and-forth dialogue that recalls such movie classics as His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story, this debut novel by prominent film blogger Nehme is a joyful insider tale of cinematic obsession and a celebration of the ways in which fandom brings us closer to one another." - Booklist
"A winning valentine to old movies, falling in love and eighties New York - and how best enjoy all three at the same time." - Tom Shone, former Sunday Times film critic and author of Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer
"With the same combination of passion, precision and generosity that she brings to her film criticism, Farran Smith Nehme has crafted a lovely, witty and empathetic novel that effortlessly captures New York City in the late 1980s, a moment when being obsessed with movies took - and rewarded - a bit of legwork." - Mark Harris, former executive editor for Entertainment Weekly and author of Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War
"Missing Reels is as funny and satisfying as a classic Hollywood romantic comedy and as absorbing as the most intricately plotted detective story. It is also an intensely loving, convincingly detailed, elegantly shaped, and thoroughly knowledgable tribute to the glory and heartache of working in the movies and being a hardcore movie fan, written by one of the best writers on the movies that we have ever had." - Dan Callahan, author of Barbara Stanwyck: The Miracle Woman
This information about Missing Reels was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Farran Smith Nehme has been writing about classic film at her blog, Self-Styled Siren, since 2005. She also is currently a freelance movie reviewer for the New York Post, and her film writing has appeared in The New York Times, Barron's magazine, Cineaste magazine, The Baffler, and many other publications. In 2008 she was named Film Blogger of the Year by GQ's Tom Carson. She lives in New York City.
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