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? Capote's Women by Laurence Leamer. Truman Capote surrounded himself with "swans," the cream of New York society. Ultra rich, ultra sophisticated, ultra everything. Their power came from the exquisite lives they created for their powerful husbands. They lived in a rarefied atmosphere, and they fascinated Truman. He was their mascot, their brilliant but platonic best buddy. What they didn't know was that he couldn't be trusted. He was chronicling their lives for his big opus, his mid-century Manhattan version of Marcel Proust.

 

These women are so shallow they are tragic. They have no power of their own, they live in the reflected glory of their men. I think they would be surprised to know that a plain old working girl like me pitied them. But nothing seemed to give their lives meaning, not their husbands, not their lovers, not their children. To have real careers would be vulgar (and one of the "swans," Lee Radziwill, had the attention span of a gnat). This was the mid-60s and early 70s. Vietnam, civil rights, the women's movement, the war on poverty. None of this social upheaval touched them. Their lives revolved around their social calendars and their holiday trips.

It's a fascinating look at a world that (I believe) has vanished. I'm glad I'll be done with it before the Ryan Murphy miniseries premieres.

 

2. What did you recently finish reading? The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene. This is Nancy Drew Book #1. Where it all started. The most popular girl in River Heights solved her first right here.

 

Her doting father, esteemed attorney Carson Drew, is here. So is Hannah Gruen, the loving cook/housekeeper who loads Nancy up on the best breakfasts. Nancy tools around in her blue convertible. Some things are missing, though: Nancy hasn't started seeing her loyal boyfriend, Ned, and she solves this mystery without the help of her buds, Beth and George. They must not appear until later books.

So Nancy Drew was the precursor of Kinsey Milhone in Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mysteries. I can't remember what happened in A Is for Alibi, but I know Kinsey has a little black dress, cuts her own hair with manicure scissors, and has a crush on Henry.

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