The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate (Nation Books)

Norma Barzman's extraordinary memoir, The Red and the Blacklist, fizzes with the wit and energy of the classic Hollywood comedies of the forties. But it is also laced with the fear and claustrophobia found in the forties film noirs, as Norma and her husband Ben Barzman are driven from Hollywood -- during the postwar McCarthyite witch hunt -- into an emotionally difficult 30-year exile in France. While their hair-raising and amusing adventures continue, Ben battles depression as he attempts to rehabilitate his career, while frustrating Norma's own aspirations as a writer. She seeks solace in a string of affairs, one of them ending in a pregnancy that she aborts. However, Norma's passion for life, Ben and her seven children, and her radical instincts, shine throughout this dazzling memoir. 20 black-and-white photographs are included. Read more