Book Review: L.A. Women by Ella Berman

Lane Warren is the most respected female writer on the 1960s L.A scene, her piercing prose and clinical insight illuminating great works of both fiction and non-fiction. Gala Margolis has lived the type of life movies are based on, hobnobbing with the rich and famous, inspiring many a great work of art – the kind would call her a muse, the less so would call her a groupie. A shared social network throws the two women in each other’s way, and to begin with, they aren’t exactly firm friends. Soon though, Lane comes to admire Gala for the bravery it’s taken to live differently, and Gala to respect Lane for the discipline its taken to get to her storied position.

Ten years later, Gala has gone missing, and only Lane seems to care, although her concern is borne as much from guilt as it is from simple fellow feeling. Over two timelines, L.A. Women – the third novel by Ella Berman – tracks the rocky course of the friendship between Gala and Lane, eventually discovering the secrets that upturned both of their lives.

Even the fleetingly familiar with L.A’s literary history will recognise that the titular L.A. Women are loosely based on real-life writing frenemies Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, who (in an irony that undoubtedly would have amused both of them) died within a week of each other in 2021. While the contrast between the immaculate prose of Didion and Babitz’s looser, more sensuous writing was clearly an influence, it’s just a starting point for the novel, not a precise road map. And all the better for it.

To call something an easy read implies a certain emptiness, but that wouldn’t be accurate here. The short chapters and glitzy milieu mean that L.A. Women is certainly not difficult to fly through – Berman’s prose is silky and evocative, but never in a way that distracts from the narrative. As she charts the rocky friendship of the leads and their circle across more than a decade, she also covers addiction, ambition, the disappointments of motherhood, mid-century homophobia, the joys and agonies of writing, and a whole lot more. These pages are the furthest thing from empty.

The old trope of women fighting amongst themselves for success is a tired and a noxious one, but Berman treats it with admirable light and shade, showing the complex ways than Lane and Gala build each other up as well as knock each other down. When they do fight, it’s all too often due to a communication breakdown, or a misread of intentions. Berman makes clear that in the male-dominated literary milieu of their era, that they’re expected to be at war hangs heavy in the air, encouraging them in their least generous interpretations of one another’s actions. Conversely, as they both become sadder and more isolated across the two different timelines, it couldn’t be clearer that no-one understands Lane as much as Gala, or Gala as much as Lane.

Although happily for us, by the end of L.A. Women, we have come to understand them too.

★★★★★

L.A. Women is published by Aria on 5 August 2025