Her character growth is the most obvious throughout the story.įrank, in all his morning-suited, fact-quoting, family historian glory, steals the show. The way she observes this new city and odd family, endears the reader to those two subjects, as well as Alice herself. Johnson’s narrator, Alice, has a quick and witty way about her, with a train-of-thought narration that is more organized and cohesive.

She soon is on a mission to untangle the web of mystery surrounding Mimi’s past and Frank’s father, all the while adventuring through Hollywood with Frank as an irreplaceable companion.

When Alice arrives, she is quickly introduced to Frank’s strange but endearing ways and Mimi’s abrasive and absent personality.Īlice also finds out it is harder than she thought to get Mimi to write this book and easier than she thought to love a child that isn’t hers. To help with this, her publisher sends Alice Whitley to Los Angeles to act as a live-in nanny, chef and chauffeur, among other things. Now, she needs to write another book to provide for herself and her 10-year-old son, Frank. “Mimi” Banning (who one can't help compare to Harper Lee) has been living off of the royalties from her debut smash-hit novel but loses all of her money in a bad investment.

In Julia Claiborne Johnson’s debut book, “Be Frank With Me,” she proves life can be all at once funny, heartbreaking, messy and redemptive. ' BE FRANK WITH ME ,' by Julia Claiborne Johnson, William Morrow, $25.99, 304 pages (f)

Be frank with me book review