Audrey Munson's radiant rise begins with New York's great self-glorification at the 1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration. Centerpiece for its grand banquet: a marble sculpture of the three graces. Eighteen-year-old Audrey modeled for all three.

Soon she is posing for statues before the Plaza Hotel and atop the Municipal Building, among others, and she is the first woman to appear naked in a movie. But times and tastes change-and then come the horrors of the Great War, when artists no longer sculpt lofty themes such as "virtue" and "beauty." Her luminescent career eventually darkens into a trail of loss and despair.

This is a pretty good book. I enjoyed the Characters and the plot. It really kept me interested.

Miss Manhattan by Stephen Wolf is the story of Audrey Munson who posed naked for several New York City public statues in the 1920’s. She is renowned as Miss Manhattan and Miss Brooklyn, attributed to the sculptures she has modeled for.

Audrey and her mother move to New York City to pursue her dream of dancing in Broadway shows. While she does dance in a few shows, Audrey finds employment modeling for artists. Her specialty is modeling in the nude.

World War I arises, and Audrey is out of a job. No artists are creating art, they are all contributing to the war. What will she do and how to survive?

The story then changes point of view to Sofia in New York City in 1990. Sofia is an up-and-coming artist; she carves statues from trees. As she is studying other artwork throughout New York City; she keeps noticing the face of Audrey in many of the public works realizing it is the same woman.

Sophia searches for years to discover the name of the famous model. When she is finally able to name Audrey, where does she find her? What stories can she talk about and what happened to her? Why was she forced to leave her beloved New York City?
It sounds like an enchanting little story. I am sorry to say the story is so poorly written that it is hard to follow. The writing is disorganized and lacks structure. Wolf should edit it before publishing.

Wolf could have explained more about the artists Audrey was modeling for and her part in their fame. There are photos in the book of the famous statues, but unfortunately, they did not come through on my newly updated Kindle.
Thank you to Netgalley and Koehler Books for the Advanced Readers Copy. Opinions are my own.

I had high hopes for this one, as a NYC visitor and history buff it promised a good storyline. However, I found the book disjointed and somewhat hard to follow. Both Audrey and Sophie were interesting characters on their own, but the tie between Sophie's artistic tendencies and Audrey's hidden career as the face behind many famous sculptured statues is tenuous at best.