A Story of Friendship in 1950s California
A Map to Paradise
Friendship Fiction; 20th Century Historical Fiction
Berkley
March 18, 2025
Ebook, Hardcover, Audiobook
352
1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.
Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?
As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…
A story of losing one’s sense of home and the journey to find it again
Susan Meissner’s A Map to Paradise is about three women living in Paradise Circle, Malibu, in 1956. Melanie Cole is a Hollywood star who is blacklisted because of her association with her heartthrob boyfriend and his past lover with Communist leanings. Eva Kruse, her Polish housekeeper, has been displaced after World War II. June Blakenship, a widow, cares for her famous screenwriter brother-in-law, Elwood. His mysterious disappearance brings these women together in an unexpected friendship.
Meissner tells the story through each woman’s point of view. I appreciated having the variety of voices and character backgrounds to drive the narrative. This is not a plot-driven page-turner. It is the interweaving of histories of displacement, injustice, and prejudice through each main character. Some historical elements, such as the Displaced Persons camps of Eastern Europeans after World War II and the details of the Red Scare in Hollywood in the 1950s, were fascinating. Meissner did a great job researching and providing a clear picture of these points in time. In the author’s acknowledgements, she writes:
When I began researching the 1950s for this book, I was struck right away by how fearful people were in the early years of the Cold War. Home–not just the place where we sleep at night but that unparalleled sense of belonging and safety–seemed to be hanging in the balance.
The themes of displacement and home are timeless and would make this a relevant story even for today.
Despite these guiding metaphors, I found some of the main characters in this book a bit unrelatable. In my opinion, Melanie is written as a demanding, whining, almost childish woman in the midst of personal crisis. June seems powerless and desperate for almost the whole book. The friendship between these two women in particular did not seem natural to me. Eva was the most redeemable character, in my opinion.
A Map to Paradise has its tender moments, some happy endings, and a bit of mystery. It’s a unique interweaving of experiences of the 1950s. I simply wished for more likable characters so that I could stay invested in the story. This moved a bit slow for my tastes, but there were also many redeeming points in the novel.
Celeste is a woman who is unwavering about certain things in life; three of those being books, cats, and cold brew coffee. If she can enjoy all three at the same time, it’s going to be a good day. Her favorite genres are fantasy or sci-fi romance, historical romance, and historical fiction but every few books she likes to mix it up with contemporary fiction, a good psychological thriller, or an inspiring memoir. She has a busy schedule working full-time for an online university but she makes sure to unwind each day with stories, either by reading to her elementary school-aged daughter or tucking herself in bed with her Kindle or the latest book she picked up at a local book store.
