Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

Lucky Us introduces us to Eva and Iris. Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris's ambitions take them from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island.

With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine through a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with gorgeous writing, memorable characters, and surprising events, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, the creation of a family, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life. From Brooklyn's beauty parlors to London's West End, a group of unforgettable people love, lie, cheat, and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species.
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The storytelling flowed easily the writing fluid and easy to follow. I still had a hard time getting into this book the first third was difficult for me mostly because I found the characters to be quite unlikable and while their back stories and what they were going through was some compelling their reactions and attitudes were for the most part offputting. It wasn't until about halfway through that I became actually interested in what was going on and how it was going to unfold.  Part of what kept me reading even in the beginning when I was really not enjoying these characters was the way that Bloom present to the story through Eva's viewpoint for the most part but also interspersed with letters from Iris and other characters occasional use of points of view from other characters in book. The sprinkling of historical events specifically to do with pre-and during World War II and the cultural references that were mostly daily life for the 30s and 40s brought this book much more interest than I would've given a credit for for the first half of the story. By the third quarter of this novel I was actually enjoying the character of Eva and how she was coping with what was happening that part of the story really did focus on her and her growing up and less so on the other characters. At the end of it I found that the story reminded me of the poison Wood Bible in my reaction to it again without book I really didn't enjoy the first third of the book and it was only when the characters had grown up some and the backstory that had been laid out in the first half of the book finally came to bear in the fleshing out and plot movement and character development of the main character, Eva. Upon reflection I have to say that I am glad I read this book of the story has stayed with me and while I don't think that I would read it again I would, with some qualification, recommend this to a few people I know who enjoy family saga /dramatic stories.

If anyone can explain how the book cover relates to the story, I would appreciate it.