Fleur De Leigh's Life of Crime: A Novel

This gently comic first novel, set in Beverly Hills during the late 1950s, is narrated by a 10-year-old. Convincing depictions of a small child's mental state are one of the hardest tasks an adult fiction writer can pull off, and Diane Leslie's accomplished portrait of Fleur de Leigh is one of the better efforts in '90s fiction. While this girl has her occasional moments of adult retrospection, it bears noting that her showbiz parents have been determined to raise her as if she were a miniature adult--which, in their case, means ignoring her for long stretches of time but offering occasional insincere displays of affection. Her mother, the star of the Charmian Leigh Radio Mystery Half-Hour, aspires to a career in film or television; she even goes so far as to book a regular appointment with her shrink, not for the benefits of psychoanalysis but because "David O. Selznick had the appointment before hers. He was an important connection and this was Charmian's way to connect." Her father, meanwhile, is off producing game shows, and brings her along to one broadcast--not to show her what he does for a living but so she can help fill the studio audience. Left to fend for herself, with nominal assistance from the string of nannies that passes through the house, Fleur winds up doing things like collecting seashells or reading with a flashlight under the covers only "because I liked pretending I was a normal American child."

Fleur de Leigh's Life of Crime covers a two-and-a-half year period, and it would be very easy for Fleur herself to dominate the proceedings. But Leslie has created a rich cast of supporting characters, each of whom is given just enough space to establish a distinctive personality yet still not distract our attention from the real star of the show. From the nanny who performs her duties in high heels and gold-flecked lipstick to the loyal gardener to the aging film legend, they all contribute to Fleur's developing awareness of her inner strength, helping her to persevere in the face of her parents' casual disregard. Fleur de Leigh's Life of Crime marks a very promising beginning for a novelist in the vein of Dawn Powell and James Wilcox. --Ron Hogan