'Delayed Rays Of A Star'

Since Amanda Lee Koe's short story collection of 'Ministry of Moral Panic' (2013), I have been waiting to read her debut novel, 'Delayed Rays Of A Star' (2019). I'm more curious about it than excited because it's categorized as historical fiction and revolved around the lives of three then up-and-coming actresses Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong and Leni Riefenstahl in the 1920s and 1930s. It promised to be ambitious and I'm not sure it would deliver.

The book's first few pages held a translated quote “Either the puppet or the god.” It's taken from German writer Heinrich von Kleist's short story 'On the Marionette Theater'. The next page was a reprint of that famous photograph (taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt) of  the three women at the Berlin Press Ball in 1928. It's this photo that the stories swirl around.

In the year the photos was taken, Marlene Dietrich was about to leave Berlin for Hollywood, gave up her German citizenship to be an American, sold war bonds, sang for the Allied forces and raised funds to aid the Jewish refugees; Anna May Wong was an iconic third-generation American-Chinese Hollywood actress (stereotyped and pigeon-holed by directors and film studios. She lived during the prejudicial legislation for the Chinese ruled her life although her grandparents settled in America since 1855, including criminalizing marriage between a Chinese and a white); Leni Riefenstahl seemed rather infatuated with Hitler, supporting his policies and visions, and was apparently part of his inner circle. She met Hitler who approved of her opinions and she ended up directing a number of critically acclaimed Nazi documentaries and propaganda films.

Different chapters focus on the respective personal lives of each star, and of course the destruction and minor characters that form their world. There're countless disappointments, betrayals and triumphs. Written in third person narrative, these minor characters are pivotal to Amanda Lee Koe's storytelling brilliance in this book. Categorized into these three stories of three characters over six chapters, we hear stories from......,

'The Sole Purveyor of Madame Bovary in Beijing'

Bébé was 90-year-old Marlene Dietrich's Chinese maidservant in Paris. We learnt how she arrived in Paris, and her life now, and her first taste of macrons from Ladurée on Rue Royale because Madame Marlene desired them. Bébé holds 'refugee' status after being conned to work in Paris and then busted in an anti-vice sweep). By the end of the book, in a strange twist of fate and circumstances, she was deported back to China, via German police.

Today Madame's stool was shaped just like a petit-croissant. 

She flushed it down, the petit-croissant shape coming apart with the force of the water. Bébé was fascinated by the different breads available in Paris. Bread for her meant something very different from rice. She made an effort to remember the names of all the breads, practicing their pronunciations so she would not make a fool of herself at the bakery: baguettes, boules, croissants, fougasses.

'Walter Benjamin Is Recommended An Overnight Motel in Portbou'

Walter Benjamin, a German-Jewish writer, began a correspondence with Anna May Wong till it tapered off years later. He was being hunted by the Gestapo. With an entry visa to America but not the relevant exit out of Vichy France, they were denied entry into Francoist Spain at Portbou, and the ultimate port of departure in Lisbon. Their hopes of an escape were dashed. The Portbou police posted a sentry outside the motel he and his acquaintances stayed in so as to escort them back to Vichy France. In that motel room, he chose suicide by ingesting 15 expired tablets of morphine.

'The Malayan Orangutan Has the Key to the Basement of the Leipzig Zoo'

Hans Haas, a resting soldier rotated back to Berlin after two Wehrmacht campaigns on the North African front, worked security on Leni Riefenstahl's film set in the mountains. As part of the security dispatched, he also helped out with the lighting crew on Riefenstahl Film GmbH. Hans had plenty of musings about his mentor Schmitz, who was one of the best gaffers in Berlin. He had apprenticed with him when he was best boy at UFA the premium motion-picture production company in Berlin.

We follow his time on Leni's film set. So there's a wolf, and that's the odd bit. The wolf was meant to be used for a few scenes, and it escaped, only to be shot by a farmer. German wolves were protected, and Leni wanted a wolf for her film from Leipzig Zoo. She got one. We hear the story of animals at Leipzig Zoo. The Chairman of the zoo saved all the baboons and golden tamarind monkeys to salty in a disused basement. He locked them in, and left the key under a fruit bowl. He showed Dewi where the key was. Dewi, is the oldest orangutan matriarch from Malaya.

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This isn't an easy book to read for me. I'm neither a film buff nor am I into these actresses. I know of them, but I'm not completely interested their lives or a fictional account of them. To be less confused about Amanda Lee Koe's work of 'historical fiction', I read up about the backgrounds of these actresses, their delayed start to 'stardom', and their eventual achievements, their political leanings and their fateful choices. Much more has been written about Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, less so about Anna May Wong. This book takes artistic license with what we know about the actresses and that is all the fun in reading it.