Mary Lou’s War: A Novel

“Mary Lou’s War,” a first novel by Lia Schallert, takes the reader to a different era. The time reflects how the nature of women has changed in the past 60 years. Straight out of high school, Mary Lou, the protagonist, 17, works at an Army hospital dealing with administrative issues for soldiers who have been broken both emotionally and physically. In spite of pressures to go against her character, the heroine remains true to her core self. Although it’s distressing to see an age where women were denied promotions because of their gender, it’s also refreshing to see true femininity. This is a book that will cause endless debates in book clubs. Mary Lou is a fascinating character. There are correlations between Schallert and Mary Lou. Schallert, who was raised in Richmond, Virginia, also worked in an Army hospital during WW II at age 17. When asked if the story was based on her life, Schallert smiled and said, “There’s a lot of me in Mary Lou in the book.” When asked if the end of the book was true she said, “The whole last part of the book is true.” When she was young, Schallert wasn’t serious about her schooling. She went to a Catholic high school, where she took four years of both French and Latin. When she went to college, she didn’t feel it offered the same challenges as her high school, and left after a year. She actually mastered the rudiments of typing at college which helped her to get a job with the Army. After the war, Schallert moved to Los Angeles and studied acting. Schallert met her husband, William, at the Circle Theater, which was the first professional theater-in-the-round in the country, located on El Centro in Hollywood. The first play she was ever in was “Rain” directed by Charlie Chaplin. She remembers that Chaplin directed his actors by showing them how to do it. William has worked steadily in stage, television, and film. Among other roles, he’s played the father in numerous shows, including “The Patty Duke Show,” “New Gidget,” “Little Women,” and the “Nancy Drew” series, leading him to joke that he’s the most promiscuous father on televlsion. When Schallert first started her acting career, she worked a lot in theater and television. “I was quite driven, but once I had a baby it was different,” she said. She continued to act, but not with the same intensity. The Schallerts had four children, all boys. When her boys were teenagers she said, “I reached a certain point when I thought it’s better if I’m home a lot.” Most actors take class to keep fresh when they’re not working, and Schallert was no exception. She would bring in interesting monologues to class, and her teacher, Jeff Corey, would ask where she got them. Off-hand, she’d reply, “Oh, it’s some obscure play you don’t know.” After a while, he became suspicious and then confronted her, “I know you’re writing these.” He encouraged her to take a writing class. Her first one was a UCLA Extension class. Out of that class came a core of writers who started to meet weekly to critique each other’s work. When the woman leading that group quit, Sid Stebel who teaches a master class at USC, took over as the mentor. The group has been meeting for 15 years once a week, and there are still five or six members from the original group. “It’s a supportive group, no one gets hostile or mean,” Schallert said. “Everyone is so nice.” She dedicates “Mary Lou’s War” to her husband William, Stebel and the Westside Writing Group members. Schallert tries to write every day from 1 to 5 p.m. She still writes in longhand, then puts it on the computer. “I’ve had fun,” she said. “It’s very satisfying to go up to your room and be in another world.” Schallert has written four other manuscripts, as well as a screenplay. Lia Schallert will be signing her book at Village Books on Thursday, August 18, at 7:30.