Matt’s Reviews > A Season in Purgatory > Status Update

I’m always drawn in by Dunne’s Roman à clefs. Whilst a lot of the dialogue has repetitive moments, I feel that that evokes the ceaseless merry go round of gossip within those social circles in reality. Dunne knows this world better than most, and he manifests masterfully the 1% of the 1%.

I’ve read a few works of his so far (An Inconvenient Woman, People Like Us, Too Much Money), and i love how he always weaves background characters into every story, the integral figures who create these settings (Cora Mandell) and the ones who observe the charades (Gus Bailey).