Edithsbookpicks: MelanieBenjamin: The Swans of Fifth Avenue, 978034...

Edithsbookpicks: MelanieBenjamin: The Swans of Fifth Avenue, 978034...: Melanie Benjamin: The Swans of Fifth Avenue, 9780345528704, Bantam Books, (Penguin Random House USA)   “The Swans of Fifth Avenue”...

Melanie Benjamin: The Swans of Fifth Avenue, 9780345528704, Bantam Books, (Penguin Random House USA)

 

“The Swans of Fifth Avenue” is a delicious, gossipy read around the famous entourage of Truman Capote, the society women who helped him to his fame and his fall from grace when he published an article called “La Cote Basque” in Esquire Magazine spilling the secrets they had entrusted in him.  I breathed through the 350 pages, dying to get back to the story when I had to set the book aside.  

The most famous of the five women was Babe Paley, wife of the CBS tycoon Bill Paley who was an absolute fashion icon and the It-girl of her days. I had to google her after reading the book;   I needed to visualize what she truly looked like in her famous gowns, a stunning beauty. She became Truman’s closest friend and through her he gained access to all of New York’s richest and most famous members of society.

The five swans were made up of Slim Hawks Hayward Keith, Marella Agnelli, Gloria Guiness and Pamela Churchill Hayward Harriman, all married to rich men or royalty with Babe Paley being the most beautiful whose poise and grace surpassed everyone else’s.  Truman Capote became their confidant and intimate friend, called their “True Heart”, everything their husbands were not.  

Melanie Benjamin does a captivating, fabulous job in fictionalizing their lives, based on factual material, be it Truman’s rise to fame and their relationship with each other, their unimaginable wealth and style of living, often marrying the discarded lover or husband of the other, Truman’s famous black and white ball and his final betrayal in spilling the beans of their secrets in his thinly vailed article in Esquire.  Truman was expelled from their lives after this; he had greatly underestimated their reaction which eventually leads to his downward spiral into drugs and alcoholism.

If you are looking for an entertaining, gossipy read taking you back to the golden age of New York in the Fifties with all the glamour and scandal around Truman Capote up to the Seventies, this is your book!  I dove into this world of glitz, glamour, betrayal and scandal, a delicious tale from start to finish. I also highly recommend the film "Capote" , by chance I had just watched the movie again before picking up the book , starring the incredible Philip Seymour Hoffman.  

Edithsbookpicks: Kathleen Rooney: Lillian Boxfish takes a walk, St....

Edithsbookpicks: Kathleen Rooney: Lillian Boxfish takes a walk, St....: Kathleen Rooney: Lillian Boxfish takes a walk, St. Martin’s Press, 9781250137609, paperback, January 2017 Kathleen Ronney’s novel “Lill...

Kathleen Rooney: Lillian Boxfish takes a walk, St. Martin’s Press, 9781250137609, paperback, January 2017

Kathleen Ronney’s novel “Lillian Boxfish takes a walk” was inspired by the real life of Margaret Fishback, a female advertising pioneer in the 30ties working for Macy’s in New York, a highly unusual woman drawing one of the highest salaries in her days as Kathleen Ronney writes in her afterword.

While reading I fell for Lillian Boxfish, I loved her sharp wit and pioneering spirit so unusual for most women in her days, never aspiring to marry but to remain independent working for her own living.  She took me on a walk through her life and I often felt we shared similarities, having a little bit of Lillian Boxfish in me. We probably all do, at least I found myself in some of her actions more than once, the passion for walking being one of them. Reading this witty, sometimes sentimental but yet funny book felt also a little bit like being in a Woody Allen movie, all set in New York.

When Lillian Boxfish decides to set off on a New Year’s Eve walk in her mink coat in 1984 she is 84, walking having been one of her passions, often rescuing her in troubled times. As she heads off on her 10  mile walk taking her from her Murray Hill apartment down to the tip of Manhattan and back, she encounters new people through chance meetings, always with the aim to walk to a bodega and Delmonico’s, a restaurant where she has dined on New Year’s Eve for many years of her life. 

With each episode, she reminisces and puts pieces of the puzzle called life together, remembering  what shaped her life and the people and emotions that mattered: Max, the love of her life, her beloved son, her best friend Helen and her success as an author and advertising great at Macy’s, her love for New York. And ultimately her great sorrow of losing friends, love and acquaintances as she ages but never feeling sorry for herself retaining her spunk and spirit, remaining  curious about the next encounter.

The quality of writing, the witty sentences were a great delight and as I read on,
I fell in love with the young and old Lilian Boxfish, what a fabulous entertaining read. 

Amor Towles: A Gentleman in Moscow, 9780735221673, Penguin Random House, US

Do you know the feeling when you put down a book feeling really sad that you are about to say goodbye to some beloved characters?  Amor Towles “A Gentleman in Moscow” is that type of book, going up on my shelf of all-time favorite books. I fell in love with his debut novel “Rules of Civility” a few years ago; I have purchased it as a present for friends countless times since then.  “A Gentleman in Moscow” reminds me of the Russian Classics such as Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Towles style of writing is a pure joy to read and the story as such simply wonderful. I read it in the turmoil days of the US election, what a solace it was to return to this fine novel when all I wanted to do is puke in the real world.  As if God sent, A Gentleman in Moscow is like a parable teaching you that in times of political upheaval true happiness can be found in the most unexpected ways.

Amor Towles takes you on a trip to Moscow starting in 1922 when Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov stands in front of a revolutionary Red Army tribunal of Internal Affairs, being accused of having written a poem which is considered a threat to the revolution whereby he is sentenced to life long house arrest in the Hotel Metropol, right across from the Kremlin. This doesn’t faze Count Rostov much when hearing his sentence as his family had kept a suite in this first class hotel for many years. But to his great surprise he is not led to his room filled with family heirlooms but instead to an attic room. 

What unfolds from this very room is the cosmos of the Hotel Metropol with all its employees and guests, Count Rostov as the central character, gentleman and connoisseur of human nature. The 462 pages of this novel provide a glittering cast of characters, with a background of one of the most tumultuous 40 years of Russian history, every chapter unfolding another episode in the life of Count Rostov who never leaves this hotel in all these years, well almost....  This gentle, captivating story is a perfect antidote to these unsettling times. I urge you to go out and buy a copy of “A Gentleman in Moscow” immediately.  You will not regret it, I promise. 

Lucie Whitehouse: Keep you close, Bloomsbury, 9781408867327, paperback

I previously read “Before we met” by Lucie Whitehouse  which was a Richard & Judy summer pick for those familiar with the British book world.  I enjoyed the suspense, a book for one of these more lighthearted reading moods and although I hate comparisons as they never do justice, Lucie Whitehouse’s psychological  thrillers are for those readers who enjoy “Gone girl”, “Girl on the train” as they always hold a twist. But she does not quite reach the level of mastery of these aforementioned novels.  I picked up “Keep you close” from my book pile the other day looking forward to a suspenseful read.  Lucie Whitehouse did not disappoint me; she knows how to keep you guessing, always on the verge of discovery.

When Rowan Winter’s best friend, the brilliant young painter Marianne Glass falls to her death from the roof of her childhood home where she lives and has her studio, Rowan knows something is terribly wrong as her friend suffered badly from vertigo.  She must have not set foot outside her studio onto the roof without a very good reason, as in the dead of winter the roof was slippery and she was literally scared to death of heights.  Marianne’s warm hearted artistic family had always been a surrogate family to Rowan who lost her mother early and had a very absent cool father. During her studies in Oxford she and Marianne became as close as sisters and her family adopted her readily. But something happened; they had not spoken a word to another for years and then days before falling to her death Marianne sends Rowan a written message only saying “I need to talk to you”.  After the funeral, Rowan offers to stay in Marianne’s house, particularly when Jacqueline, Marianne’s mother  starts worrying that her daughters valuable art work stashed in the house might get stolen.  For Rowan it is a chance to dig into the past and the lost years, trying to unravel what might have led to Marianne climbing onto the roof leading to her tragic end.  What importance did James Greenwood, Marianne’s boyfriend and gallerist, his daughter, Rowan’s and Marianne’s old friend Turk, Marianne’s brother Adam and especially the famous painter Michael Cory have in Marianne’s life?  While Rowan meets them all,  Whitehouse masterfully drags out the reason for Marianne’s and Rowan’s fall out for about 2/3^rd of the book , the real cliffhanger,  and this is when the book starts to turn into a very different direction which I will keep to myself.  “Keep you close” is an excellent psychological thriller for autumn weekends.