MY FACE FOR THE WORLD TO SEE

    There seems to be a general agreement that the two best Hollywood novels are The Day of the Locust (1939) by Nathanael West and What Makes Sammy Run? (1941) by Budd Schulberg. The number three spot is still up for grabs. I’d like to nominate My Face for the World to See, which produces a greater emotional impact than either of the top two. It got wonderful reviews when it was published but seems to have faded entirely from view in the past fifty years. I am, incidentally, casting Campbell Scott and Katherine Heigl in the movie adaptation.

    My Face for the World to See by Alfred Hayes. Harper and Brothers (1958), 183 pp.
    A New York writer is on one of his annual stints in Hollywood. He’s repelled by the superficiality and pretentiousness of the movie business but relishes the high salary and respite from his unsatisfying marriage. At a typically boring beach party he sees one of guests, a beautiful young woman, walking into the ocean with a cocktail glass in her hand. When she stumbles, he races into the water, gets her back to the beach and revives her. He ruminates on the meaning of this event until she calls a couple days later to thank him. Then he asks her out to dinner, hoping to assuage his loneliness one way or another. He gets much more than he bargained for.
    Hayes takes two familiar Hollywood characters, the cynical writer and the aspiring actress, and turns the stereotypes upside down. Beneath the writer’s air of detachment is not incipient idealism but a deep fear of involvement. And below the actress’s game determination to succeed is not an admirable spunkiness but the compulsions of a tormented soul. Hayes depicts their relationship in a series of powerful scenes that lead to a shattering conclusion. The writer narrates the story in a tone of mild self-criticism that often smacks of rationalization. The actress’s version of the tale would be much different. Some readers might find the book too concerned with psychological explanation. But even they are likely to be won over by Hayes’s acuity and sensitivity. This is a terrific novel and deserves a wide audience.