Save the Drama for Your Mama: A Beach Bard's Good-bye

Elin Hilderbrand's Golden Girl (not to be confused with The Golden Girls or even Hilderbrand's earlier novel, Silver Girl) has all the usual Hilderbrand elements.  The gorgeous Nantucket beaches, the patina of Nantucket privilege.  And, of course, the tragedy that wreaks ripples of havoc.  But Golden Girl has one thing that Hilderbrand's twenty-six other novels don't: a dead heroine.

Fifty-two-year-old Vivian "Vivi" Howe is the titular golden girl.  A successful novelist and divorced mother of three grown children, she becomes the victim of a hit and run accident on her own street.  The search for the driver is the book's central conflict.  But it's Vivi's afterlife that's really interesting.  Her guardian angel "person" guides her to the "boho-chic greenroom of her dreams" (and yes, it's painted green, or rather, Benjamin Moore's Parsley Snips).  She'll remain there for the summer, allowed to connect with her children only by giving each a "nudge" in his or her time of need, before moving on to the choir.  This got my attention.  I've always thought of heaven, the great beyond, or whatever, as a place of infinite possibility, not a place hemmed in by its own rules.  Isn't that what Earth is for?!  But if fiction has taught me anything, then it's that 1) only trouble is interesting, and 2) we don't always get to see dead people -- or, less disturbingly, the ghosts of the people we love. 

Top: Jessica Simpson, Belk's; Shorts: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's; Belt: Hand-me-down from Mom; Shoes: Chaps, Kohl's; Bag: Olivia Miller, TJ Maxx; Sunglasses: Party City; Bangle: INC, Macy's; Beaded bracelets: Mixit, JCPenney

That distressing tidbit aside, Mother Vivi in the Clouds makes for an apt plot device.  A spirit peering down at her children is a new way for Hilderbrand to weave the intrigue that her readers (this one included!) have come to expect and rely on.  Golden Girl has the extra layer of Vivi's own beyond-the-grave drama.  She's just released her latest novel, which happens to be her most autobiographical, and it reveals a secret about her past.  Hilderbrand gives us glimpses of Vivi's pre-Nantucket life in Parma, Ohio to tell a nostalgic tale about her first love, rocker Brett Caspian.  Although Vivi and Brett's song is Journey's "Stone in Love," their world feels more like John Mellencamp's Middle America.  It's romantic and edgy yet wholesome, adding dimension to Vivi's narrative, bookending her life as we know it and providing, among other things, some much-needed closure.

Unburied Treasure Necklace

That said, according to the Target exclusive afterward, Golden Girl is Elin Hilderbrand's most autobiographical novel too.  Yet even without that admission, any Hilderbrand fan knows that Vivi is a reflection of Elin.  I love how Hilderbrand has fun with this, even going as far as to speculate what her fellow islanders think of her in sections cheekily labeled "Nantucket."  (Hilderbrand's books are always broken down into sections marked by the characters' names, giving each character a point of view.  Her ability to alternate between voices is one of the things about her writing I admire the most.)  In this sense, Nantucket is a character, everyone and no one at the same time.

Golden Girl gets the gold for sure.  And not just for making us wonder what happens when we get to that big boho-chic greenroom in the sky.  But because it reminds us of what's important while we're still here on Earth.

By which, of course, I mean the fudge brownie batter ice cream at the Juice Bar.     

Movie Moment: Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages is about rock and roll and the people who love it.  Set in 1987 in an LA bar called the Bourbon Room, its inked and studded players laugh, cry, and dream to the likes of Journey, Styx, Guns N' Roses, Poison, Motley Crue, REO Speedwagon, and so many big-haired others.  Although the movie highlights the seamier side of the era of excess, it is, at its heart, a universal yarn about falling in love and following your dreams.

Sherri (Julianne Hough) is the proverbial good girl who longs to make it big.  To be sure, when the movie opens she is literally "just a small-town girl living in a lonely world on a midnight train going anywhere."  Once on the Sunset Strip, her sundress and sunny disposition set her apart, and her prized suitcase full of albums is stolen almost as soon as she steps off the train.  That's when Drew (Diego Boneta) comes to the rescue.  A barback at the Bourbon, he gets her a job there waiting tables, much to the annoyance of crusty owner Dennis (Alec Baldwin).  She's a singer, he's a singer, and it isn't long before they're making goo-goo eyes in between serving drinks.  Meanwhile, Dennis and his right-hand man and very special friend Lonny (Russell Brand) book larger-than-life and out-of-control rock god Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) to rescue the Bourbon from bankruptcy.  But Stacee comes with baggage in the form of his conniving manager Paul (Paul Giamatti), idealistic Rolling Stone reporter Constance (Malin Akerman), and the mayor's wife Patty (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who will stop at nothing to expunge him and his ilk from her fair city.  Inevitably, Sherri and Drew are mixed up in the maelstrom and eventually forced to find out what achieving fame really means.

Rock of Ages balances the badass with the sentimental and even the silly, often laughing at its own overblown homage to 1980s extravagance.  The fashion is fabulous, from Patty's prissy pastels to Stacee's most libidinous leather, and the pop culture references keep the camp coming.  But it is, of course, the nonstop rock of power ballads and arena anthems that make you feel as if you're at the concert of the decade.