The Swans of Fifth Avenue – Melanie Benjamin
It is school holidays here at the moment, which means there is a high degree of mayhem in my house. The youngest one has a friend over – this seems to involve shouting and jumping about and the older one is sewing (which means I am sewing or at least threading needles and unpicking). I did manage to get this novel finished before holidays started. The only Truman Capote novel that I have read is Breakfast at Tiffany’s, so knew nothing about his life.
Here is the blurb …
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife comes an enthralling new novel about Truman Capote’s scandalous, headline-making, and heart-wrenching friendship with Babe Paley and New York’s society “swans” of the 1950s.
Centered on two dynamic, complicated, and compelling protagonists—Truman Capote and Babe Paley—this book is steeped in the glamour and perfumed and smoky atmosphere of New York’s high society. Babe Paley—known for her high-profile marriage to CBS founder William Paley and her ranking in the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame—was one of the reigning monarchs of New York’s high society in the 1950s. Replete with gossip, scandal, betrayal, and a vibrant cast of real-life supporting characters, readers will be seduced by this startling new look at the infamous society swans.
I did enjoy reading this – it was gossipy and scandalous (who doesn’t like a story about celebrities behaving outrageously?) – I do wonder if all of the main ‘actors’ are dead? For me this novel was all about the content – it was meticulously researched, but not obtrusively so (the ideal of historical fiction). I feel I have learnt something and I enjoyed the journey.
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