WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I can no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet by MC Beaton. Agatha is a successful London PR exec who retired to a quiet village in the country. She's bored and lonely for romantic companionship. She has a crush on her neighbor, but he seems uninterested so she turns her attention to the handsome new vet. He's as strange as he is good looking, though. He's a vet who doesn't like cats or dogs. No one seems sorry when he turns up dead. The police declare his death an unfortunate accident, but Agatha decides it's murder and sets out to prove it.

Agatha is funny heroine for a cozy mystery in that there is nothing cozy about her. She is bossy and surly and, even though she made her living in public relations, has no talent for dealing with people. I'm enjoying my second outing with this lusty old girl.

 

2. What did you recently finish reading? Deliberate Cruelty by Roseanne Montillo. In the 1950s, Ann Woodward had it all. Blonde and beautiful, she married into one of New York's top banking families. She found herself in the world of the social register, with a showplace in Manhattan and a weekend place in Oyster Bay she whimsically called The Playhouse. Then, one awful night (Halloween weekend, no less) she found herself in a deadly scandal and she lost it all.

Truman Capote was extravagantly talented and prolific. He was writing short stories, novels and even a Broadway musical. His star was on the ascendant. He ran into Ann Woodward, no longer welcome in New York, in St. Moritz. They disliked one another on sight and exchanged heated words.

 

Twenty years later, when Ann was virtually forgotten and Truman's career had peaked, he needed material for his next "non-fiction novel." He made Ann the subject of his roman a clef. Terrified of renewed and very harsh public scrutiny, she committed suicide before the excerpts were published in Esquire.

 

Ann Woodward was not the only New York society woman Truman Capote exploited in his short story. Once Esquire hit the stands, his phone stopped ringing. In no time, he was a pariah, just as Ann had been. Losing his place in cafe society devastated him. He never finished the novel that was excerpted. In fact, he never published another book, finding refuge in drugs, drink and playing court jester at Studio 54. While it took him longer to kill himself, his end was just as final as Ann's.

This well-written book is about talent, money, and privilege. It's about dreamers who are willing to sacrifice to make their dreams come true. It's the tale of two tragedies, and I was riveted.

3. What will read next? I don't know.