Dance with the Devil

Middle-aged Hollywood director Danny Dennison finds his successful, respectable life unraveling when he meets Luba, a sensuous call girl, whose captivating sexuality threatens to shatter Danny's long-guarded secrets

Fans of silver screen legend Douglas ( The Ragman's Son ) are bound to enjoy his credible fiction debut, a sometimes spellbinding, solidly commercial tale of Hollywood producer Danny Dennison, who as a boy is the only one of his family to survive a Nazi concentration camp. The orphaned youngster locks the secret of this Jewish birthright deep within him, where it festers for decades, distancing him from those he loves. By age 55, Danny has lost interest in the moneymaking films he churns out, and has reaped a bitter harvest from the dissolution of his joyless marriage to a wealthy alcoholic whose powerful father intends to destroy Danny's career. Enter young, sensual Luba, the quintessential whore with a heart of gold--which she naturally saves for Danny despite his inexplicable surges of anger and cold withdrawal. Luba reawakens all Danny's desires, including a hunger to redeem himself as an artist and a Jew. Douglas acquits himself well when liming the complicated mix of love and need that binds Luba and her mother Magda, but relies on cliches to put flesh on most other characters, including Danny himself and his crass agent and buddy Milt. Nonetheless, this is highly readable, entertaining drama. Literary Guild dual selection.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Readers of Douglas's autobiography, The Ragman's Son (LJ 10/15/88), will speculate on the parallels in his first novel, which also chronicles the rise to fame of a Russian-Jewish emigre in Hollywood moviedom. The first half of the book alternates chapters about Moishe, who becomes director Danny Dennison, with the story of Luba, a Polish refugee who uses sex as a survival tool. She is a London prostitute when she first encounters the successful but unhappy protagonist, and he is at once captivated by her honest charm and the stories she tells about her hardknocks past. Luba makes Danny realize that he has prostituted his talent and denied a long-suppressed secret. This awkward attempt at fiction is devoid of both style and substance, but public libraries should anticipate high demand from the legion of Douglas's fans. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/90.
-Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.