The Seventh Veil of Salome - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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The Seventh Veil of Salome

by
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Title:	The Seventh Veil of Salome
Author:	Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre:	Novel
Written:	2024
Length:	315 pages
Availability:	The Seventh Veil of Salome - US
	The Seventh Veil of Salome - UK
	The Seventh Veil of Salome - Canada

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

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Our Assessment:

B : solid idea, reasonably well done

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
The NY Times Book Rev.	A	6/8/2024	Lauren LeBlanc

From the Reviews:

"The Seventh Veil of Salome, Moreno-Garcia’s 10th novel, is an old Hollywood tale crossed with fire and brimstone. And like her previous works, it’s a compulsive page turner. (...) Moreno-Garcia builds momentum by contrasting foreshadowed catastrophe (interspersed throughout the novel are hints about a tragedy around the film) with a shrewd examination of faith and desire. Even in the seediest corners of Los Angeles, there’s always hope for a comeback story. Veils exist to be stripped away." - Lauren LeBlanc, The New York Times Book Review

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

The Seventh Veil of Salome is both the title of this novel as well as of the mid-1950s 'sword-and-sandal flick' around whose making the story centers. The movie is a pet project of director Max Niemann's -- already: "in the works forever" -- and:

Max was taking a big gamble on The Seventh Veil of Salome. William Dieterle had shot his own take on the story of the Biblical temptress two years before, with Rita Hayworth in the lead, no less. Normally, this would have killed our project immediately, but Max was a major director back then, and he had a lot of pull. Plus, he thought he had a fresh angle on Salome, something that would cash in on the sword-and-sandal craze yet differentiate the product.

The story is presented in sections that focus on different characters' perspectives -- in particular Vera, who lands the role of Salome, and Nancy, who had hoped to play the lead but only gets a bit part in the film; these sections are narrated in the third person. Other, shorter sections are first-person accounts and observations from others involved in the movie, or associated with Vera or Nancy. And a significant part of the novel is (a version of) the Salome-story, which unfolds alternating with the then-present-day action. (Moreno-Garcia chooses not to present these parts in screenplay-form -- i.e. slip the film itself into the novel -- but rather narrates it in plain prose; the story clearly resembles Niemann's vision but isn't limited to dialogue and stage/camera directions and thus goes beyond what a screenplay alone could convey (e.g.: "She did not weep. Trained as she had been in courtly graces, she could school her face into a mask of marble. Seldom did she allow sorrow to show, veiling it under iron rather than silk cloth")
Young Vera is an opera-fan, and when auditioning for the part, when she says: "I've always loved this role" she explains:

I mean that I have always loved Salome. I don't know your movie script, but I know Lachmann's libretto and I know Strauss's music, and I think I know what it all means. Ah ! Ich habe deinen Mund geküsst, Jochanaan,"

       But Niemann makes clear he has other ideas: "That's nice, but we're not shooting Strauss". (Interestingly, neither Niemann nor Vera refer to Oscar Wilde's play here, despite the fact that the libretto is, after all, essentially just a cut but otherwise close to verbatim version of the play; the Wilde play is only brought up very late in the novel. (See also my novel, Salome in Graz, for lots more backstory and other versions of the Salome-story.))
       Vera -- born Francisca Severa Larios Gavaldón, but always known as 'Vera' -- was chosen for the role when she was twenty-one, discovered working in her father's dental practice in Mexico City. Her mother, who had hoped to become a singer herself, favored her younger sister Lucinda -- Lumi -- and had tried to prepare Lumi for a career as a performer, which is how tag-along and helper Vera picked up a lot along the way; Vera also picked up some other talents the less studious Lumi never did, from typing to foreign languages. Lumi disappointed her mother by throwing away her career by getting herself knocked up and married, but mom also resents Vera for now being the one with the big opportunity, which she still feels Lumi deserves. She is anything but supportive, continually undercutting Vera at every turn.
       Nancy is five years older, and has been trying to break into the business for a while now but, determined though she is, she isn't nearly focused enough on advancing her career -- indulging in too many distractions while feeling entitled (despite not having proved herself). As someone working in the casting office of the production company notes:

She could have been Salome, no doubt about it. But she kept making dumb choices. [...] Bad crowd and lousy habits

       Newcomer Vera also has the advantage that the studio can introduce her to the world any way they want, shaping her public image -- with publicist Dan Quiterio deciding: "the best course of action was to sell her as mysterious, exotic, and unattainable". Kept out of the public eye at first, she's then paraded around some with rising star Simon Gilbert -- a safe date, since he's not interested in the ladies. More problematic are the increasingly insistent attentions of co-star Clifford Collins, who plays the role of "Salome's Roman suitor" in the movie, and when Vera refuses to put out she makes herself a powerful enemy on set and off.
       Vera also meets and falls in love with Jay Rutland, with whom she shares a love of music -- she devoted to opera, and he to jazz. He comes from a wealthy family, and is being supported by his mother for a year while he tries to break into the music business in Los Angeles -- the family's expectation being that he will get it out of his system and then return to the fold. Like Vera's mother, Jay's is an overbearing piece of work, and to her Vera obviously isn't good or appropriate enough for her son -- after all: ""The Rutlands are well respected. We have impeccable reputations". But it's not only Jay's family that is a problem -- he also had a fling with Nancy, and so beside her professional jealousy there's also romantic jealousy, as Nancy sees Jay is a good catch and she continues to pine some for him (and his lifestyle).
       The novel more or less covers the time of the filming of The Seventh Veil of Salome -- though surprisingly little is devoted to the actual filming, with only a few scenes on camera described, and with the behind the scenes action around the filming -- in the hallways and commissary and the like -- often not focused on the filming itself. The nature of the film itself thus remains somewhat elusive, though we can gather that the story tracks the Salome-story that unfolds along the way in those chapters devoted to it (and the arc of the story is, after all, familiar). We're also reminded several times that screenwriter Joe Kantor -- not the original one, but someone brought to fix up the script -- is still working on the screenplay even as the filming is going on, with the conclusion long: "still a work in progress". Some of the suspense comes from what that final turn might be: as Vera notes along the way:

"I haven't read the ending yet," Vera said. "The script I have is missing those pages. It says I dance, and then there's a blank page."

       Given the early promise that director Max Niemann had: "a fresh angle on Salome", it's a bit disappointing that angle isn't suggested or presented more at the fore -- but then even Niemann seems unsure about it, all along: only a short section near the end is narrated by him, where he admits: "I was figuring the ending out, dithering with the script, caught in a haze".
       Vera and Jay grow closer, and Nancy gets more desperate, still so convinced that she's the one who deserves the role. As Clifford turns against Vera, rumors of possibly recasting the lead crop up .....
       Moreno-Garcia pays considerable attention to the backdrop of 1950s Hollywood and Los Angeles, from the locales and who frequents them to the role and power of gossip columnists and to the different grades of actors -- from those who are basically untouchable to those on the periphery like Nancy, just trying to get a foot in the door. She paints a decent picture of the strange movie business -- "It's an awfully stupid business, but it has its charm", as one character puts it. The racism of the times is also noted repeatedly, significantly factoring into various aspects of the story.
       Music also plays a significant role, with Jay an enthusiast of West Coast jazz -- explaining why he came to Los Angeles rather than New York -- and Vera more than just an opera lover, a talented musician (and budding composer) in her own right.
       The parallelly told Salome-story goes considerably into the build-up before the (in)famous dance, with two suitors vying for Salome, and Salome drawn to Jokanaan. But of course it does all build up to the 'Dance of the Seven Veils' -- "an ancient dance, one that was rarely performed due to its complicated movements and elaborate dress" -- which Moreno-Garcia suggests holds a special place for Herod and Herodias:

When Herod had visited his brother's palace, Salome's mother had danced the Dance of the Seven Veils for the court. Ever since then, it had become their dance. The dance she danced for Herod Antipas.

For that reason alone Salome doesn't want to dance it -- "You'd make me his whore. Your husband, my own uncle !" -- and she also sees why Herodias wants her to, because then she can ask for anything as a reward, including the execution of Jokanaan that Herodias is so eager for. Eventually, however, Salome does agree to dance, and the novel builds up to that -- both in the Salome-sections and those dealing with the film itself.
The nature of the dance -- and the uncertainty about it -- are well-handled, with Moreno-Garcia finally acknowledging Wilde's original:

     Salome dances the dance of the seven veils.
     That single line was the only description of the climactic moment in Wilde's play. The script of The Seventh Veil of Salome was similarly sparse: she dances for a few minutes. It sounded easy on paper, it seemed achievable during rehearsals.
     It was, in fact, impossible.

       The stage-directions in the Lachmann/Strauss libretto are not as spare in description, hence the reference to Wilde -- but (as the protagonists of my Salome in Graz argue) far from being the climactic scene in Wilde's play (and, in somewhat different manner, in Strauss' opera (where the poor composer couldn't simply get away with a few words like Wilde but actually had to write some filler-music)), the dance is mere interlude.
       The dance does get decent play in The Seventh Veil of Salome - again, helped by the build-up to it (with the novel's other main storyline also building up to its dramatic finale), including Niemann's thoughts and reflections on Salome, not least that: "Salome is a chimera. Part lion, part dove. It's that duality that makes her monstrous". But here too the big question is: what of the aftermath ?
       Moreno-Garcia also has Niemann make one of the most insightful observations, of how:

Gustave Moreau painted several versions of Salome, but in a movie you only get to show one shot. You can't show the alternative takes. You make a choice with the editor about what will be screened. You get one Salome instead of a multitude of Salomes. She either smiles or she weeps.

       And yet Moreno-Garcia has it, at least partially, both ways, with screenwriter Joe Kantor describing, decades later, a dream he has taking him back to the filming in 1955, where they are filming the ending as he wrote it ("a finale that strayed from Wilde and Strauss both") ..... It makes for a reasonable and quite satisfying conclusion.
       Much of The Seventh Veil of Salome has a soap-operatic feel -- as many Hollywood-novels inevitably do --, but that itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, and Moreno-Garcia handles much of this quite well, helped especially by her ability to make Vera a strong character (though too many of the others -- notably Nancy, and the awful mothers -- are too simply drawn). The parallel Salome story is also well-told, making for a decent balance to the novel, though the film itself, and any real sense of Niemann's vision, remain too elusive.
       When Niemann is considering her for the part, Vera tries to put into words how she sees Salome:

It's passion. It's madness on the stage. The intensity of feeling that gets under your skin. It's chasing a moment you'll never regain. It's loving, for the first time. When you love like that, I think, you'd like to tear your heart out.

       Vera -- who had already been engaged once, but broke it off -- finds first true love with Jay, but is presented as a more rational figure, not letting her emotions carry her away; it's Nancy that is the impulsive, overly emotional one (though hers isn't a particularly romantic kind of love). Vera is closer to the Salome presented here -- also in having the manipulative mother, who expects her to do as she is told -- but Nancy also has some Salome in her, at least of Salome as Vera originally envisions her. But just as Niemann doesn't seem to be able to settle on how exactly he wants his Salome to be, Moreno-Garcia also seems to unsure just wwhat she wants of the character(s). (The genius of Wilde's underappreciated play, the original Salomé, is that it is the rendering of the story in its most perfect, its ultimate form -- or so, at least, the protagonists of my Salome in Graz insist .....)
       Much of the writing here is quite good, but some of the secondary voices -- the short sections by others -- are a bit strained (Moreno-Garcia gets them to sound different, but that's not always for the best), and the romantic plots (and their outcomes) are ultimately too basic -- Hollywood formula, practically, without enough additional depth to make them anything much more. The separate Salome-story is quite solid, offering more near-backstory to the events familiar from the Bible, Flaubert, and Wilde/Strauss but otherwise presenting them fairly similarly; it's a decent but unexceptional variation -- though at least enhanced by running parallel to Niemann's cinematic vision and its realization (though it would have been great to see, in one form or another, much more of that).
       It makes for an entertaining enough read, but doesn't quite live up to its potential -- though that's perhaps a bit much to ask, given how many Salome-variations there already are (Moreno-Garcia practically acknowledging as much in having a character point out that the Rita Hayworth Salome had been shot just two years before her Niemann makes his ...). Certainly, there's a lot packed in here -- but arguably a tighter focus (and a bit more risk-taking in the plotting, straying more from the familiar in both the Salome and Hollywood story-lines) might also have served the novel better.

- M.A.Orthofer, 24 August 2024

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Links:

The Seventh Veil of Salome:

Del Rey publicity page
Arcadia publicity page
Playlist

Reviews:

Silvia Moreno-Garcia:

Official site

Other books of interest under review:

My novel, Salome in Graz
See Index of Canadian literature
See Index of Latin- and South American literature

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About the Author:

Mexican-Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia was born in 1981.

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