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The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sometimes, even the wealthiest, most glamorous, most fêted superstar feels like a motherless child. Once Bobolink (Babe Paley) and True Heart (Truman Capote)were introduced, they were soulmates because their mothers, although present, were emotional bullies, leaving empty spaces and empty rooms that the socialite and the flamboyantly gay writer could fill with confidences and true vulnerability.
They met before Capote's success with Breakfast at Tiffany's. She and her husband welcomed him into their world and opened themselves to him even more than to each other - only Truman was allowed to see Babe's unpainted, scarred face. Not her husband, William Paley, nor CZ Guest, Slim Hawks, Gloria Guinness, Pamela Harrison, or any other the other glittering socialites had a clue about the renowned beauty's inner insecurities. From party to party, social event to lavish vacation, Truman and the Paleys partied and gossiped and lived the life of true excess that filled newspaper columns about the rich and famous.
How did it all go so wrong? After In Cold Blood, Truman faced a writer's block so deep that only excesses of drugs, alcohol, and Studio 54 could distract him. Although his beloved Babe was succumbing to lung cancer, he used the materials he had gathered - the gossip, innuendo, backstories - and exposed Babe and her circle in a story he published in "Esquire" - “La Côte Basque 1965” - destroying the illusion of their beautiful lives, and, effectively, committing social suicide.
Almost everyone in this book is seedy, gossipy, and unpleasant. Benjamin captures the rhythm of their language (especially Capote's) and the spectacle of their lives so well that you only realize afterwards that you have just read about truly awful people. The planning and execution of Capote's Black and White Ball are especially vivid, especially when the younger celebrities such as Mia Farrow and Penelope Tree leave with Frank Sinatra and the party collapses.
Four and 1/2 stars - close to completely enchanting.
I received this book as an e-ARC from NetGalley, and this is a fair review.
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The Haunted Season: A Max Tudor Mystery by G.M. Malliet
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was a little disappointed. Not that Max and the residents of Nether Monkslip are any less fun to read about -- their squabbles, their power-plays, their baking... -- but there were so many characters in this outing that they quite blanketed the murder. Still, it was fun to read about the annual Duck Race (not that they race actual ducks, you understand), the internecine doings of the village ladies, and the Baaden-Boomethistles - lord and lady of Totleigh Hall, with the utterly perfect Dowager, a combination of Barbara Cartland and "Downton Abbey"'s Countess Violet.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.
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Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Elizabeth Hand channels the summer of 1972, deep in an ancient English forest, where five young musicians are secluded from the world, creating their masterpiece. Their Child ballads, mystical and mythic original lyrics, virtuoso musicianship, and sense of wonder have been disorganized and derailed by the death of their lovely lead singer. Their manager thinks that Leslie, with her strong voice and lyrical skills, will energize the music and the remaining members of Windhollow Faire.
Wylding Hall reveals itself as a portal to very old magic, perhaps older than the perspective-bending barrow deep in the woods. By the time the young musicians record the album during a spontaneous outdoors session - photographed haphazardly by a young teenager with his first Instamatic - each member has been wounded by a mystery, and has discovered uncanny links to past tragedies. Have they also seen a ghost?
The short novel is structured as the transcript of a 21st century documentary, narrated in turns by each of the band members and participants - all but one, the beautiful, brilliant Julian, whose disappearance decades before was linked to a very strange young girl, and a very strange melody...
Did you enjoy Uprooted by Naomi Novik? Do you eagerly await the work of Charles de Lint or Pamela Dean or Terri Windling? Does your playlist include Loreena McKennitt, Pentangle, Steeleye Span, or Fairport Convention? This is your book. Anyone who loves folk-tinged fantasy will love it too. The only thing that will disappoint you: there is no soundtrack. Maybe someone will put together a Spotify list.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.
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