Book Summary and Reviews of A Map to Paradise by Susan Meissner

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Chuck

Reflect
"Map in Paradise" took me back to 1950's Hollywood & the McCarthy era. The three women protagonists reflected on their past lives which effected their present lives, & their futures. McCarthyism was a dark period in our countries history & should not be forgotten. How intolerance & fear can effect a country & to be tolerant. A must read. Another great book by Susan Meissner.

Linda Z.

A Memorable and Thought-Provoking Novel
I loved everything about “A Map to Paradise” by Susan Meissner. I am a huge fan, and I highly recommend this memorable, emotional and thought-provoking novel to others. The Genres for this novel are Historical Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Adult Fiction, Friendship Fiction, and 20th Century Historical Fiction.

The timeline for this story is set in 1956, and the setting is in Malibu California. This is the time of the Hollywood blacklist. In this well written novel, the author vividly captures the beautiful scenery, and describes her colorful, suspenseful and dramatic characters. The three women characters that reside on Paradise Circle in California are Melanie Cole, a blacklisted actress, the housekeeper Eva, who is harboring secrets, and the neighbor June, who is the sister in law of an agoraphobic writer.

Melanie and Eva notice that June is working in her brother-in-law’s garden with beautiful rose bushes. Although he doesn’t leave the house, he often will talk through the window to Melanie. When Melanie hasn’t spoken to June’s brother, she wonders where he is. Somehow, the unlikely trio of women seem to be connected by mystery and suspense.

I appreciate how Susan Meissner discusses the historical implications of the Hollywood blacklist, mental illness, displaced persons after the war, the importance of friendship, communication, honesty, trust, love and hope. I highly recommend this captivating and intriguing novel.

SusanR

Strong Women
It's 1956, the war is over and American politicians are working to publicize the names of people who are thought to be members of the Communist party. The Hollywood blacklist was a list of people in the entertainment industry that were ineligible for employment because of their suspected ties to the communist party. A Map to Paradise looks at three women who are struggling to find happiness in their lives despite all that is going on in the world.

Melanie is an actress who had a major role in a hit movie. Her name is on the black list because her co-star in the movie is suspected of being a Communist. They acted like a couple in love to help publicize the movie so she is also a suspect. To keep her safe, her boyfriend makes arrangements for her to live in a house in Malibu, far away from reporters. Melanie wants to go back to acting and doesn't understand why she is unable to work in Hollywood. The only people that she talks to are her cleaning lady, Eva who is an immigrant from war-town Europe and her neighbor Elwood who is a script writer with agoraphobia and lives with his sister in law next door. Early one morning she sees Elwood's sister in law, Jane, digging in his rosebushes. After that she's unable to get him to the phone and she becomes suspicious of Jane. She sends Eva next door to help with the cleaning but wants Eva to find out what's happened to Elwood. Eva wants to keep a low profile because she lied on her entry forms to the US and is fearful of being sent back to Europe.

All three of these women are hiding secrets from the world. In the beginning, they aren't friends - they are individually doing what they can to survive in their worlds. As several secrets come to light, their friendship begins to grow. But can they really trust each other or are they only setting themselves up for trouble?

I really enjoyed this book. All three women were very strong in their own way. Even Melanie who was the most naïve grows as she becomes involved with the other two women. This book is full of suspense - a fire in Malibu, a possible dead body and the black list in Hollywood all add to the story and make it an interesting look at America in the 1950s. I really liked all three female characters but my favorite was Eva who had been through so much in her life and had the most to lose if her secret was revealed.

Be sure to read the Author's Notes at the end of the book to find out more about the author's research into the beginnings of the Cold War and the blacklisting of the early 50s. This was another great book by Susan Meissner.

Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews

Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews - A bit slow, but turns out good
Set during the McCarthy era, we meet three women.

Melanie has been blacklisted because she was seen with a producer that they think is a communist.

Eva is a Polish housekeeper for Melanie.

June lives next door to Melanie and is taking care of her brother-in-law who won’t come out of his house because of an accident he caused a while ago.

The odd thing is that June won’t let anybody see Elwood, and it’s a puzzle where an agoraphobic person would go.

Elwood must be there because Melanie hears a typewriter clicking.

How will these women - all with secrets - become connected?

A Map to Paradise started out slowly for me, but once the background information of each character was revealed and their predicaments were revealed, I enjoyed a thoughtful, well-researched read. 4/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

JHSiess

An Entertaining & Suspenseful Exploration of What It Means to Have a Home
Bestselling author Susan Meissner says she was researching the 1950’s when she learned “how fearful people were in the early years of the Cold War.” Americans were terrified that their way of life would be taken from them, and peace in the world was tenuous given that World War II was not that far away in the proverbial rearview mirror. She began considering “displacement” and possible reactions to it. “What does someone do when they’ve no sense of home anymore? How do they live without it? What are they willing to do to get it back? And if the loss of home is imminent, what are they willing to risk to keep it from being taken from them?”

The result is A Map to Paradise featuring three female main characters, each of whom has been displaced from or is facing the imminent loss of her home, lifestyle, and the security that comes from having a place to belong.

Melanie Kolander disappointed her parents when she left Omaha, Nebraska and moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actress rather than going to college. Known professionally as Melanie Cole, she scored bit parts in movies before finally landing a lead role in a successful film that was released just months ago. She also had a high-profile relationship with her costar, Carson Edwards – arranged by the studio – that they both enjoyed, even though neither saw it as a real or lasting romance. Melanie was finally earning enough money to splurge on luxury items and looking forward to the start of filming on her next big movie in which she would again have the starring role.

And then, at just twenty-five years of age, her dream life evaporated before it really got started. Because of her association with Carson, her name was placed on Hollywood’s blacklist, she lost the role in the upcoming film, and no studio will hire her. Her parents are embarrassed and, along with her agent, have urged her to come home to Omaha, enroll in college courses, and build a more stable life for herself. Melanie steadfastly refuses.

Instead, wealthy Carson has admirably arranged for Melanie to escape to a rented house on Paradise Circle in Malibu and agreed to pay Melanie’s living expenses for the foreseeable future, hoping that the Red Scare will be short-lived, and their careers will survive. In the meantime, they must avoid being seen together in order to keep further rumors from circulating. Melanie not only is not a member of the Communist party, she has never attended any meetings, and is not even sure what it means to be a Communist. Like too many in the entertainment industry, she has been unjustly targeted solely because of her relationship with Carson, who has been suspiciously cagey when Melanie has questioned him as to whether he is a Communist or sympathizer.

Isolated and alone in her rental house, Melanie has had no social life for months and has sought solace and advice about her predicament from her next-door neighbor, Elwood Blankenship, a successful screenwriter. Since a tragic automobile accident nearly a decade ago in Palm Springs that claimed the life of his passenger, Ruthie Brink, a woman he was dating at the time, Elwood has suffered from agoraphobia. He has not ventured out of his residence in all those years, and converses with Melanie either while near a doorway or from his bedroom window, where he spends countless hours drafting scripts that are delivered to the studios for him. Elwood’s brother, Frank, and his wife, June, moved in to care for him after the accident. And June remained after Frank’s sudden death from a heart attack five years ago.

The other person Melanie interacts with consistently is Eva Kruse, the housekeeper who spends six hours each weekday mostly cleaning a house that is already clean and preparing meals for Melanie. The two women don’t converse much, and Eva is conscientious and reserved. Dispatched by Marvelous Maids, Eva would like to secure a different assignment, but fears that lodging a request could backfire and she needs the job.

Not only is Malibu a long bus ride from the room she rents, Eva harbors secrets that could both complicate matters for Melanie and result in Eva's deportation from the United States. Eva is a thirty-year-old survivor of World War II who lost her home, family, and the young man, Sascha, she loved and planned to spend her life with. After the war, she spent time in Displaced Persons camps before landing a housekeeping position in London and, from there, emigrating to Los Angeles after securing a sponsor. But Eva falsified her history and immigration officials would take swift action should the actual details about her background become known.

As the story opens in December 1956, sleepless Melanie is shocked when she observes June digging up several of Elwood’s beloved rose bushes in the yard. Melanie cannot fathom why June would do such a thing, especially in the middle of the night, knowing how it will upset Elwood. Meissner relates that June came to life in her “mind as an image of a sad and desperate woman digging up rose bushes at three a.m.” and she filled in the details – June’s history, her relationships with both Elwood and Frank, and the events that have led up to that pivotal moment.

Melanie questions June about not only the roses, but Elwood’s sudden disappearance. She doesn’t see him in the bedroom window, is not able to talk with him through the fence, and June refuses to call him to the telephone when Melanie calls. June has always been protective of Elwood, but is particularly evasive, insisting that Elwood isn’t speaking to anyone because he is experiencing a depressive episode and needs to focus on completing a script that is due to the studio soon. Melanie does not buy June’s explanations, growing increasingly worried about Elwood and fearing that he is not in his house at all. But where could he be? Learning that June injured her back while moving the rose bushes, she concocts a scheme to send Eva next door to assist June with housekeeping . . . and find out whether Elwood is there and safe.

Meissner set her story in Malibu, “a fragile paradise,” on a fictional street named Paradise Circle. Malibu is not only set on the beautiful Pacific coast, it has long been known as “the wildfire capital of North America,” and the timing of the publication of Meissner’s tale – March 2025 – is eerily ironic, coming just a couple of months after the historic Palisades fire that decimated huge portions of the area. For Meissner, the setting presciently illustrated that “you can’t know for certain that what you think of as home there will always be around.”

Eva and June bond, developing a relationship that can be mutually beneficial. Eva shares some of her secrets with June, who dangles offers of assistance securing a better job in exchange for Eva’s cooperation. Soon, Melanie finds herself joining their surprising alliance in an effort to ensure that potentially devastating truths remain buried.

Meissner’s characters are fully developed and sympathetic. Melanie, who naively came to Hollywood with big dreams and quickly learned that success can be both hard-earned and wrongly ripped away, is ambitious, tenacious, and surprisingly principled. She becomes the voice of reason when she learns the truth and what is at stake. Eva already knows how it feels to lose everything, but is intent on surviving, even though she has remained heartbroken about losing Sascha. Others, including her landlady, Yvonne, have urged her to put her past behind her and open her heart to love again, but she has been unable to do so. Nonetheless, she has been adept at self-preservation in the past and is ready to again do whatever the situation requires. She feels a kinship with and fondness for both Melanie and June but is particularly protective of June. She feels great compassion for her because Eva knows all too well what it is like to be pushed to the brink.

June is the most complex of the three characters. She has a victim mentality that is infuriating, even when viewed within the context of the time period. At a time when women were disqualified by their gender from securing a mortgage in order to purchase real property and were expected to marry, raise a family, and let men be the decision-makers, June fears losing the only home and security she has ever known. Her mother left her home alone overnight in a closet, and Frank (with her acquiescence) invested in an unsuccessful venture that cost them their home. With Elwood in idyllic Malibu, she finally has the home she has longed for and the possibility of losing it is more than she can bear. Inarguably, she made poor choices over the years and developed unrealistic expectations, but she remains a tragic figure, at least to Eva and, to a lesser extent, Melanie.

The story is intriguing and as events unfold, Meissner explores her characters’ pasts, revealing how they came to be on Paradise Circle at the same time, how their pasts have shaped and motivated them, and why they must trust each other and work together to carry out their plan in order to secure the kind of futures for themselves they want.

At its core, A Map to Paradise is a tale of friendship. Meissner employs an outrageous premise, punctuated with surprising revelations and complications, to demonstrate how three women unite, initially motivated by secrecy and fears of betrayal, but end up protecting, supporting, and assisting each other through an unimaginable crisis. Circumstances throw them together with a common desire “to recover that exquisite feeling of knowing you are right where you belong, and that you can rest there because no one is trying to take it from you.” They had each known that kind of paradise at one point in their lives. “They’d each found it before without a map, and had to believe they could all find it again, the same way. Because there is no map to paradise. There is only the dream that such a place exists, as does the desire to possess it, and the determination to find it again when it’s been lost.”

Meissner’s skillful storytelling makes finding out whether Melanie, Eva, and June find paradise again a riveting and highly entertaining experience.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book and to BookBrowse for a hardcover copy in conjunction with their First Impressions program.

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