I had to shake my head as I read The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin. I had read her earlier book, The Aviator's Wife, which was about Anne Morrow Lindberg. I guess I expected more. This book was mostly about Babe Paley. She was born into money and expected to marry into more money. She was a fashion icon. She had fame and fortune and was a sad, lonely woman who came to lean on the author Truman Capote to share her secrets and unburden her soul. Truman Capote, being a writer, used her to sell his books. He used Babe's friendship to further his own career. He sold her sordid secrets. The people in this story, the rich and the famous who are photographed for magazines and who ignore their own children, they really don't interest me. So who will Melanie Benjamin's next book be about? If her pattern continues it will be the wife of some famous obnoxious man. Melania Trump?
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