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? Onassis: An Extravagant Life by Frank Brady. It occurs to me that Ari Onassis had turned up as a co-star in many, many of the biographies I've read. Jackie's second husband, business partner to Prince Rainier of Monaco, party pal to Liz and Dick and frequent host to Winston Churchill in Churchill's later years. So everything I know about him tangential. Until now.

 

I'm not that far into yet, but already I'm impressed with both the story and the storytelling. Aristo (as his family called him) is getting ready for college and can speak four languages (Greek, Turkish, Spanish and English). He's such a good student that at 16 he's considered for admission to Oxford. Though only 5'5, he's a lion with the ladies. Then the Great Fire of Smyrna hit. The Turkish military took over the Onassis hometown of Smyrna (now Izmir) and intentionally burned it to the ground, killing up to 125,000 Greeks and Armenians. Soldiers raped countless women. The Onassis family lost everything, and this teenage boy witnessed it all. My heart goes out to him. I always knew Onassis was considered a self-made man, but I had no idea the tragedy he endured when his family's upper-middle-class lifestyle was destroyed.

2. What did you recently finish reading? Such Good Friends by Stephen Greco. This is a fictionalized account of the real-life friendship between Lee Radziwill and Truman Capote. It's seen through the eyes of Marlene, Lee's live-in housekeeper. Slowly over time, Marlene becomes a friend to Truman, who encouraged her as a writer.

This novel concentrates on 1961 to 1984, so Marlene there when Lee was at the epicenter of society. She was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' sister, and the glare of Jackie's celebrity lit Lee up, too. During those years, Truman was one of America's premier writers. Together Lee and Truman partied with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Nureyev, Mick and Bianca, and Warhol. Marlene, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks with a mysterious past, saw it all and took notes.

 

While I didn't NOT enjoy it while I was reading it, Such Good Friends does not bear up under scrutiny:

•  It's a historic novel, so I shouldn't be too bothered by inaccuracies. But this one really bothered me: BOTH Lee and Truman were alcoholics, BOTH Lee and Truman sought treatment. Truman's dependency is depicted in detail and Lee's is glossed over. 

•  Lee had two children, Tony and Tina, whom our narrator had to watch grow up. I mean, Marlene lived with the Radziwills in that Manhattan apartment for more than 20 years! Yet the kids are scarcely mentioned. Wallpaper patterns and couture are described ad nauseum, but Lee's relationship to her children is non-existent. It left me feeling that both Lee and Marlene had to be very shallow women.

 

I don't regret reading this book, but I don't recommend it to anyone, either. Life's too short.

3. What will read next? I don't know.