"A celebration of the quirks, intricacies, and hallmarks of a beloved but culturally undervalued art form: the American soap opera.
Adored by battalions of devotees and maligned by others for melodramatic twists and turns, soap operas have had an outsized impact on American culture, prefiguring the rise of today's reality television and character-driven prestige dramas. In Love in the Afternoon . . . and Evening, cultural critics Charlotte Druckman and Mayukh Sen salute the stories and talent that have sustained the industry since its radio days. Featured are smart yet dishy interviews with soap icons like Susan Lucci (All My Children's Erica Kane) and Erika Slezak (One Life to Live's Victoria Lord); deep dives into the genre's infamous tropes and archetypes (long-lost daughters and evil twins); and considered takes on the industry's treatment of race, reproductive rights, and queerness. Part cultural analysis, part backstage tour, and all love letter to an oft-misunderstood art form, Love in the Afternoon . . . and Evening will make you want to bust out your shoulder pads and binge your favorite show all over again."
"Merle Oberon made history when she was announced as a nominee for the Best Actress Oscar in 1936. Her nomination marked the first time the Academy recognized a performer of color. Oberon, born to a South Asian mother and white father, broke through a racial barrier—but no one knew it. Oberon was 'passing' for white.
In the first biography of Oberon in more than forty years, Mayukh Sen draws on family interviews and untapped archival material to capture the life of an oft-forgotten talent. Born into poverty, Queenie Thompson dreamt of big-screen stardom. By sheer force of will, she immigrated to London in her teens and met film mogul Alexander Korda, who christened her 'Merle Oberon.' Her new identity was her ticket into Hollywood. When she was in her twenties, Oberon dazzled as Cathy in Wuthering Heights opposite Laurence Olivier. Against the backdrop of Hollywood's racially exclusionary Golden Age and the United States's hostile immigration policy towards South Asians in the twentieth century, Oberon rose to the highest echelons of the film-world elite.
Tracing Oberon's story from her Indian roots to her final days surrounded by wealth and glamor, Sen questions the demands placed on stars in life and death. His compassionate, compelling chronicle illuminates troubling truths on race, gender, and power that still resonate today."
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