The Swans of Fifth Avenue in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jun 12, 2017 Liz rated it liked it

I really wish Goodreads had half stars, as I would have given this a solid 3.5. I decided about 1/3 of the way through that it wasn't really meeting my expectations, and then the story clawed its way back up toward the end. It also made me feel really depressed and I wasn't expecting that - so I guess the book was kind of the Truman Capote to my Slim Keith??

There is some great writing in this book - the swan allegory that bookended the story was really nice and the last line that ended with "rip I really wish Goodreads had half stars, as I would have given this a solid 3.5. I decided about 1/3 of the way through that it wasn't really meeting my expectations, and then the story clawed its way back up toward the end. It also made me feel really depressed and I wasn't expecting that - so I guess the book was kind of the Truman Capote to my Slim Keith??

There is some great writing in this book - the swan allegory that bookended the story was really nice and the last line that ended with "rippling into the crystal-dusted indigo of the pond that was the lake that was the ocean that was the dream of a forgotten world" was just fantastic. I've also never simultaneously googled to many things - and so many images! - as I did with this book; all of the Swans, their husbands, pictures of Babe and Capote, Capote's Black and White Ball, the Paley's houses, Ernest Hemingway, everything! Despite me getting bored at points, I guess I was still pretty engaged by this measure. I was impressed with the character portraits painted of real people living very fake lives, and hiding their very real flaws with quite literally glitter and jewels and preciously wrapped purple boxes from Bergdorf's, but the lack of any real connections in this book made me really sad. I guess I refuse to believe that you can't find anything more in life than pretense and that no one is really truly there for you in the end. Too dark for me.

What I didn't like about it: the dialogue started to really grate on me - a lot. I get that these characters were supposed to talk in stilted, theatrical language and that everything was always just a show and not very real, but it just got to be too much and annoyed me. What could have helped is if they shortened the first two hundred pages by about half. It just felt so drawn out and indulgent and repetitive and I started feeling super glazed over. Again, maybe a literary device to emphasize the lives of these rich and pretty vapid people, but I felt like I lost a hundred literary pages of my life that I'll never get back. Also, OMGGGGG this book made me want to punch the lights out of Truman Capote what a miserable thankless def indulgent and childish little manipulative shit. Couldn't stand him, no redeeming qualities for me, couldn't buy any of it. Blech. This guy sounded MISERABLE.

This being said, my engagement swung back into pretty full force by the last third, and it was a thrill anticipating all of the downfall that was coming after Truman Capote's big Black and White ball. The book very much hit shades of Beautiful Ruins for me - similar in that it's a fictionalized account of a few well-known American icons - but that book wholly outshone this one in my opinion.

Good read, I recommend it even though I wasn't in love with it, and at the very least it's a fantastic thought piece and a great curtain-pullback into the very unreal lives of some very real people. ...more

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