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mtherobot 's review for:
My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress
by Rachel DeLoache Williams
Reading this book reminded me of watching Gossip Girl – you know, a wealthy New Yorker simultaneously admires and judges even wealthier New Yorkers. But despite Anna Delvey being a literal criminal scam artist, she still somehow comes off as more sympathetic than Rachel Williams, from whom she stole nearly $70,000.
To hear Williams tell it, she’s a “hard-working girl from Tennessee”, naïve to hard truths of the world (like, you shouldn’t spend $70,000 you don’t have, no matter how quickly your party girl bestie promises to pay you back), ruled only by loyalty and compassion and all that sympathetic stuff. Except, you know, the part where her dad is running for congress, and her family vacations in Cape Cod, and she had been living in New York for the better part of a decade before she even met Anna…yeah.
In another work, Williams’s painful lack of perspective would have been annoying but no big deal. But so much of this book focuses on the contrast between the two of them – plain, introverted Rachel who enjoys hiking and embarrasses herself by showing up for a workout in a t-shirt and shorts; manipulative, materialistic Anna who is rude to her uber drivers and (checks notes) likes Eminem, I guess? But the more I read, the more similar the two of them seemed. Anna is a bad person who is obsessed with trendy restaurants and proximity to celebrity. Rachel is a good person who really, really wants you to know the names of all those trendy restaurants and all those famous people she’s worked with. And – at least in beginning – Williams attributes these flaws of Anna’s to her wealthy socialite status. But, crucially, Anna wasn’t actually a wealthy socialite but the immigrant daughter of an immigrant truck driver.
It’s not clear to me whether Williams understands that. Usually in these kinds of stories, there’s a moment when the victim realizes that the person they thought they knew doesn’t actually exist, that the things the believed to be true about this person – that they’re rich, they’re powerful, they’re influential – aren’t true at all. Williams writes about Anna like she really is a spoiled, out of touch rich girl. But really, of the two of them, Williams is the one with the powerful family, the celebrity connections, the money to pay for – if not the extravagant Morrocan vacation – the fancy restaurants and infrared sauna visits.
Of course, that’s not to say that Anna Delvey is a sympathetic character; she isn’t. She is manipulative, and inconsiderate, and – frankly – just plainly unpleasant. Williams’s own flaws don’t change that, and of course Anna hurt a lot of people (most notably Williams’s friend Jesse, who Anna left stranded in Morrocco with no compensation and not way home), many of whom I’m sure are much more self-aware than Williams is and just as undeserving. I’m glad Williams got her money back. It’s just astounding that she seems to have learned nothing at all.
To hear Williams tell it, she’s a “hard-working girl from Tennessee”, naïve to hard truths of the world (like, you shouldn’t spend $70,000 you don’t have, no matter how quickly your party girl bestie promises to pay you back), ruled only by loyalty and compassion and all that sympathetic stuff. Except, you know, the part where her dad is running for congress, and her family vacations in Cape Cod, and she had been living in New York for the better part of a decade before she even met Anna…yeah.
In another work, Williams’s painful lack of perspective would have been annoying but no big deal. But so much of this book focuses on the contrast between the two of them – plain, introverted Rachel who enjoys hiking and embarrasses herself by showing up for a workout in a t-shirt and shorts; manipulative, materialistic Anna who is rude to her uber drivers and (checks notes) likes Eminem, I guess? But the more I read, the more similar the two of them seemed. Anna is a bad person who is obsessed with trendy restaurants and proximity to celebrity. Rachel is a good person who really, really wants you to know the names of all those trendy restaurants and all those famous people she’s worked with. And – at least in beginning – Williams attributes these flaws of Anna’s to her wealthy socialite status. But, crucially, Anna wasn’t actually a wealthy socialite but the immigrant daughter of an immigrant truck driver.
It’s not clear to me whether Williams understands that. Usually in these kinds of stories, there’s a moment when the victim realizes that the person they thought they knew doesn’t actually exist, that the things the believed to be true about this person – that they’re rich, they’re powerful, they’re influential – aren’t true at all. Williams writes about Anna like she really is a spoiled, out of touch rich girl. But really, of the two of them, Williams is the one with the powerful family, the celebrity connections, the money to pay for – if not the extravagant Morrocan vacation – the fancy restaurants and infrared sauna visits.
Of course, that’s not to say that Anna Delvey is a sympathetic character; she isn’t. She is manipulative, and inconsiderate, and – frankly – just plainly unpleasant. Williams’s own flaws don’t change that, and of course Anna hurt a lot of people (most notably Williams’s friend Jesse, who Anna left stranded in Morrocco with no compensation and not way home), many of whom I’m sure are much more self-aware than Williams is and just as undeserving. I’m glad Williams got her money back. It’s just astounding that she seems to have learned nothing at all.