As his mother puts it, 'For a kid like Frank, hell is other children.' While Frank quickly opens up to his new caretaker, the awful Mimi never does. He speaks in encyclopedia entries and makes observations far beyond his years, 'as if he were reading off a teleprompter in the middle distance.' While his exact diagnosis is not given, he cannot be touched, throws himself on the floor in a rigid corpse pose when upset, and has a genius IQ. At age 9, Frank's daily attire includes tailcoats, yacht wear, cufflinks, a top hat, and a fez.

Thus, a young Nebraskan blonde named Alice Whitley is dropped into the weird world of this mother-son duo. She inveigles her publisher to send her a huge advance and a full-time assistant to manage her household and take care of her son, Frank. But now she's been 'swindled of her fortune by a crooked investment adviser' and has to get a book out pronto. Banning, 'a college dropout from Nowheresville, Alabama,' who 'wrote Pitched, a novel that won her a Pulitzer and a National Book Award by the time she turned 20.' That was years ago, and Banning, whose real name is Mimi Gillespie, has moved to a walled LA estate and published not another word. Johnson's debut novel revolves around a literary recluse named M.M. When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away-as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders.Īs she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank’s father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation-and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.įull of heart and countless “only-in-Hollywood” moments, Be Frank with Me is a captivating and unconventional story of an unusual mother and son, and the intrepid young woman who finds herself irresistibly pulled into their unforgettable world.A comic novel about a prickly writer, her unusual young son, and their beleaguered caretaker, set in the Hollywood Hills. The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies-with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English majors. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she’s flat broke. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years.

A sparkling talent makes her fiction debut with this infectious novel that combines the charming pluck of Eloise, the poignant psychological quirks of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the page-turning spirit of Where’d You Go, Bernadette.

Be frank with me book