The Rainbow Comes and Goes

I listened to Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt read their book The Rainbow Comes and Goes. This is a compilation of emails they each sent to each other during a year before her death. Anderson (or Andy as his Mom sometimes calls him) wanted to get to know his mother better. They did not have a close relationship and he wanted to do what he could to change that. Gloria wasn't a typical mother but she never had a typical life. A month after she was born her parents went on a European vacation without her. At age 18 months her father died of alcoholism. Her mother was absent in her life leaving her in the care of nanny. I would expect that Anderson, being a reporter, would be good at asking the right questions to get to the heart of the matter. And he did do a good job. I could tell he admired his mother but often could make no sense of her decisions. She was an artist and a successful businesswoman. Remember the Vanderbilt blue jeans? They had her name and a swan on the back pocket? I personally never liked jeans that advertised or drew any attention to my backside but many woman did like her blue jeans. This was an interesting book about people whose lives are so very different than my own.