I just started reading this new book by Brian Mathews and it is great! I’m getting into the planning months of summer and thinking about fresh new techniques for getting students & faculty members engaged with the Library. I like the author’s conversational tone and his brilliant ideas…he has me excited about the prospect of planning for the fall.
In my quest to once again become a ‘reader’, I’ve started Bright Young People: the Lost Generation of London’s Jazz Age. It’s an exploration (not a celebration) of the antics of upper-class Londoners during that much romanticized period between the wars. It’s engaging if only to read about the lavish parties and gaze at the lush photographs. I love the Mitford sisters and Diana (Mitford to Guinness to Mosley) makes an appearance in these pages. Though it is not Diana in Cecil Beaton’s photograph on the dustjacket, I am particularly fond of the cover.
To see more of Cecil Beaton’s beautiful pictures – visit the National Portrait Gallery online.
Sadly, the film Revolutionary Road made a brief appearance at the cinemas near us but I missed it. I did finish reading the book, which is excellent. I’m guilty of romanticizing the 1950s and this novel offered a different perspective from the rosy glow that is present in so many works about the post-war period. The movie previews came out before I read the book and I couldn’t picture anyone but Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet as the main characters, Frank and April Wheeler. I don’t know if Richard Yates meant for April to be a sympathetic character…I certainly didn’t find her very endearing. All of the characters in the novel seem rather unlikeable, though I did feel for Frank who just seemed exhausted, confused, and at a loss on how to deal with his wife.
It’s the kind of book that leaves you wondering about the unhappiness and anxieties that lies beneath the surface of relationships all around us. And, as consumerism continues (seemingly unfazed by the recession), it’s a reminder that life with the Jones may not be as dazzling as it appears.
