Be Frank With Me - Julia Claiborne Johnson

There were a lot of things that just didn't work for me in Be Frank With Me. While the overall premise has promise, the pieces of the story didn't come together to make a pleasing narrative. 

Alice Whitley, an assistant at a publishing company, is sent to live in LA with eccentric novelist Mimi Gillespie. Mimi, writing under the pen name of M.M. Banning, wrote one critically acclaimed novel, married a movie star, divorced a movie star, had a son - Frank, and became a recluse in Los Angeles, talking to few people and never publishing another word. Sort of like a, if J.D. Salinger had only ever written Catcher in the Rye, and was a woman kind of vibe. 

Alice is called upon to help Mimi while she completes another book. Turns out that Mimi is now broke and needs the money so has promised to write another book for her publisher. Alice is sent to help with the transcription of the novel into type and to provide Mimi with whatever other assistance she needs in order to write the novel. 

This assistance is being a playmate to Mimi's ten year old son - Frank. Frank is eccentric. We know this because we are told over and over that he is eccentric, by the characters, by Alice. What we are shown is that Frank talks in a flat monotone, favors old movies, has a good memory for facts from old movies, and dresses in the fashion of said old movies. He is endlessly bullied at school by both the kids, and eventually by an overbearing principal. 

All the while, Mimi is presented as basically a horrible person. She loves Frank at least, but she's horrible to Alice. I can deal with an unlikeable character if it does something for the story, but here it doesn't. Mimi herself never talks much with Alice, and the only other two characters who know her, Xander, the handyman, and Mr. Vargus, the publisher, don't give much information about why they remain friends with Mimi aside from the fact that it appears Xander kind of feels sorry for her, and he has his own heap of issues as well.

Alice flits naively from person to person in the story, and I didn't mind her that much until she becomes romantically involved with Xander, a vaguely described and poorly executed romance wherein both the characters' dialogue is eye-roll inducing. 

In the end, the story had no punch, and Frank, who while interesting and ultimately loveable, wasn't enough to carry the story over the rough patches.

2/5 Stars.