Tag: 1950s

The Last Dance Of The Debutante

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

It’s no surprise, well at least it shouldn’t be, I have a fondness for British books. Or books with British settings. Historical British books. British etiquette and customs. So, Julia Kelly’s latest historical fiction novel The Last Dance of the Debutante was a must read.

Kelly’s last few novels focused on World War Two. With The Last Dance of the Debutante, it’s 1957 and the last London season with the debutantes being presented to the Queen (Elizabeth II) is fast approaching. Basically, it’s peak Claire Foy in The Crown time. True confession: The Crown isn’t my thing but oh well.

Quiet, bookish Lily Nicholls comes from an excellent family.  She lives with her widowed mother in reduced circumstances, with Lily’s terrifying paternal grandmother paying for her school and expecting an iron grip on deciding her future. A bit first season Gilmore Girls with less coffee and a mother who rarely socializes and doesn’t sound like a Preston Sturges 1930s leading lady on Pixi Stix.

Then Grandmother Nicholls decides Lily is going to be one of these final debutantes, Lily’s education and her mother’s retreat from the world be damned.

Now since Lily is pretty, smart and can make her own clothes look like something from couture, I was never too worried about her future and was pretty sure she Would Prevail and Find Her Path and Her Tribe.

Does she?

Please read the book.

Of course, what truly grabbed my attention wasn’t the round of parties and just how exhausting being a debutante is. I’ve read my Nancy Mitford. Being a debutante is like being in beauty pageants only the stakes are a husband (preferably rich, titled and the right social class) versus a fur coat and a scholarship. There’s a lot of sacrifice behind the pretty dresses and wide smiles. There are  secrets lurking in the Nicholls household and Lily’s Mummy aka Josephine is a tightly coiled bundle of nerves.

If you want to make Lily’s mummy Josephine jump faster than me at work deep in a project when a coworker comes over to my desk to ask a question? Say “Joanna” and a simmering rage plus terror comes to the surface.

Who is Joanna? Joanna, Lily’s much older sister has committed some grave social sin and her banishment from the family unit is complete right down to her name never being spoken. She’s the shadow haunting everything.

And bit of a side tangent on Mummy Josephine please? She is a such a bitter person she draws your attention. The bitter and coldness radiate off the page. I half want to smack Josephine while not wanting to incur her wrath. And I am talking about a book with a beautiful yet poisonous fellow debutante everyone half loves half fears, a found family tribe of debutantes who will never be Debutante of the Year but are The Girl Squad Who Has Your Back Bestie and a flock of potential suitors.

I try very hard not to reveal spoilers but there is a plot twist I had about 75% figured out before Lily was even presented at Court (Elizabeth II not “Oh crap I have jury duty” court) except for one person. And a second plot twist is quickly handled with much more good character of spirit than I could summon in that situation. I do admit I wish there had been more time devoted to that second plot twist because the ramifications could have been awesome in a glorious peak 1980s soap opera plot line. But Julia Kelly’s heroines are much better people than me even with their flaws. And unlike me, Julia Kelly can really write excellent historical fiction.

So TLDR. Did I enjoy The Last Dance of the Debutante? Yes. Will I ever watch The Crown, nope. And am I waiting not so patiently for Julia Kelly’s next book? Hard YES!

Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It

~ Wendy-Marie ~ 1 Comment

I’m at the library, doing the half bent over but not too far bent over crouch to scan the New Non-Fiction section. I’m also in grave danger of my right arm being yanked out of the socket from a heavy library bag and somehow my wig is slightly askew from trying to fix my mask elastics caught in my glasses. My usual hot mess express self.

Then I spot a book with a L’Oreal Matte Me in Paris colored spine with big bold yet clean white letters JAYNE MANSFIELD with Eve Golden in smaller black letters. And I went from crouched beast to lunge mode because BOOK MINE NOW.

Now the average person might not know who Jayne Mansfield is. You need to be a Baby Boomer or older, a fan of the camp, 1950s/1960s Hollywood or have heard the Siouxsie and the Banshees song “Kiss Them For Me” to recognize who Jayne Mansfield is.

<insert the spouse prying himself long enough from YouTube to proclaim Superstition the worst Siouxsie and the Banshees album ever-ignore him>

Jayne Mansfield was many things in her short life-mother, actress, model, beauty queen, scandalous, wild, parodied and laughed at but she was never boring. Finding a balanced measured account of her life can be difficult because so much of her life was lived in front of cameras it’s easy to see her as just a cartoon oversized figure, the Dollar Tree/Dollar General Marilyn Monroe all white-blond hair and heaving bosoms at her tacky Pink Palace.

 It takes a special author to live up to that task and in thirty plus years of reading about Hollywood and film stars the only solid book about Jayne Mansfield was Martha Saxton’s 1975 Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties a slender volume that is sadly out of print. If you find it? Sure, buy it, my own copy has gone astray over the years and if I stumbled across it during my adventures, it’s coming home with me.

But if your library has Eve Golden’s Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It or you have a spare $34.95? Give Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It a chance. Eve Golden wrote the definitive biography of Silent Hollywood legend Theda Bara and a very fine biography of Jean Harlow so she is no stranger to being able to dig past the crazy rumors/legends and give you a look at the actual person behind the hair and makeup. Behind all that bleached hair and extreme clothing is pain and frustration along with ambition.

Now some biographers would have made an enormous focal point of a particular rumor surrounding the paternity for one of her children but Eve Golden doesn’t sink to that level. The rumor is addressed and frankly whatever the biological truth, that child has lived a life well loved and accepted.

Eve Golden doesn’t sink to that level could just be applied to the final quarter of the book. Let’s face it. If you know who Jayne Mansfield it’s pretty much because of her tragic death. It’s certainly not her acting. And because other authors <insert majorly raised heavily penciled eyebrows at a certain Kenneth Anger> sank to those levels and beyond.

Jayne Mansfield wasn’t the finest actress to ever grace the silver screen. But she was hard working and stuck to her goals even if the world was laughing at her versus with her. She was both slightly out of date even at the height of her fame and ahead of her time. And thanks to Eve Golden and Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It she is more than just a bunch of publicity photos and press clippings.