Publisher's Synopsis
This hard-to-find early novel by Vidal traces the rise to stardom of an impoverished Latina girl. Her passion for dance takes her from the honky-tonks of New Orleans to the studios of Hollywood and international fame. Along the way, eccentric characters teach her life lessons that are sometimes learned and sometimes disappear in an alcohol haze.
Grace, the doomed main character, evokes Elizabeth Taylor and her longtime friendship with Montgomery Clift. With camp tempered by pathos and themes of ambition, fame, and sexuality, the novel prefigures Vidal's later Myra Breckinridge.
Originally titled A Star's Progress and released under the pseudonym Katherine Everard, the novel was republished in slightly altered form.
