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xcdo 's review for:
The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
by Allison Pataki
This book… was fine. Marjorie Merriweather Post is undoubtably an incredibly interesting woman, having lived through and been a part of so much history. But to me, this book didn’t convey the enormity of her person and I instead often felt frustrated or apathetic.
For me, the biggest issue is that Marjorie’s personality felt annoying to me from the start. It might make sense in the earlier chapters as she’s only a young girl, but I reached my first tipping point when she cannot understand her father’s “betrayal” of her and her mother, despite her father having had a long-secretary/mistress for many years - instead, the betrayal is just finally marrying her. And obviously the mature thing to do is also marry to show how much you don’t care. But I get it, she was young and she obviously marries again. What I don’t get, however, is the sense of that childish personality changing and maturing throughout the course of the book. To be honest, without the changing of husbands and the historical events, it’s frankly hard to assess the passing of time. I found myself more and more referencing the noted years to see how much time had passed, because I didn’t get that sense from Marjorie herself.
The second issue I had is that I can’t really tell what the messaging behind money is supposed to be. There’s obviously a love of the lavish, and the luxurious and rarified details of Marjorie’s residences and experiences were some of the things that I did enjoy. But so often she says she needs purpose and to give, but it really felt like her most personal satisfaction came from making her grand residences, which is to say: money can probably buy part of her happiness. Her life can feel magical sometimes, but as she says later describing Hillwood, “not so much magic as time. And money.”
If we are to focus on her charitable work, I wanted more about her relationships with people who weren’t of her rarified class. If we are to focus on her cultural exploits, I would have loved more about her Russophile interests beyond collecting rare pieces from Soviet’s willing to sell at a bargain. If we are to focus on what her events meant to various social scenes, I want to know more about how power and relationships were involved (and maybe this also means a criticism of power aligning with wealth). Instead, I feel like we get so much luscious detail about her items, houses, and events, and it annoys me that the book’s four parts are defined largely by her husbands, when her phases in life feel much beyond that.
This is my last complaint: I didn’t love how the relationships felt instant-love to me, and the length of the relationships never really came through to me either (it’s really hard to gauge the passing of time in this book!) But my bigger complaint is that I didn’t love how the downfall of each relationship felt a little like the unreliable narrator part in a thriller book, or when your friend finally tells you how a relationship was after the breakup. There weren’t little instances of a relationship slowly coming to an end - it’s implied to have slowly ended over time, sure, but I’m not getting it in the book!! - and instead it comes all at once. It makes each relationship seem abrupt, which makes it even more abrupt when the next part of the book starts and there’s already a new love interest.
Overall, likely only fine because Marjorie Merriweather Post really is a fascinating person and it’s really interesting to see her mark on American history (did not realize that my hometown music venue of choice was named after her!), and more people should know about her. But the book never felt wholly enjoyable to me - there were parts that I liked, but overall I kept describing this book as “the annoying one” to my husband. Maybe will give the recommended biography a chance to see if that gives Marjorie the depth that I wanted from this book.
For me, the biggest issue is that Marjorie’s personality felt annoying to me from the start. It might make sense in the earlier chapters as she’s only a young girl, but I reached my first tipping point when she cannot understand her father’s “betrayal” of her and her mother, despite her father having had a long-secretary/mistress for many years - instead, the betrayal is just finally marrying her. And obviously the mature thing to do is also marry to show how much you don’t care. But I get it, she was young and she obviously marries again. What I don’t get, however, is the sense of that childish personality changing and maturing throughout the course of the book. To be honest, without the changing of husbands and the historical events, it’s frankly hard to assess the passing of time. I found myself more and more referencing the noted years to see how much time had passed, because I didn’t get that sense from Marjorie herself.
The second issue I had is that I can’t really tell what the messaging behind money is supposed to be. There’s obviously a love of the lavish, and the luxurious and rarified details of Marjorie’s residences and experiences were some of the things that I did enjoy. But so often she says she needs purpose and to give, but it really felt like her most personal satisfaction came from making her grand residences, which is to say: money can probably buy part of her happiness. Her life can feel magical sometimes, but as she says later describing Hillwood, “not so much magic as time. And money.”
If we are to focus on her charitable work, I wanted more about her relationships with people who weren’t of her rarified class. If we are to focus on her cultural exploits, I would have loved more about her Russophile interests beyond collecting rare pieces from Soviet’s willing to sell at a bargain. If we are to focus on what her events meant to various social scenes, I want to know more about how power and relationships were involved (and maybe this also means a criticism of power aligning with wealth). Instead, I feel like we get so much luscious detail about her items, houses, and events, and it annoys me that the book’s four parts are defined largely by her husbands, when her phases in life feel much beyond that.
This is my last complaint: I didn’t love how the relationships felt instant-love to me, and the length of the relationships never really came through to me either (it’s really hard to gauge the passing of time in this book!) But my bigger complaint is that I didn’t love how the downfall of each relationship felt a little like the unreliable narrator part in a thriller book, or when your friend finally tells you how a relationship was after the breakup. There weren’t little instances of a relationship slowly coming to an end - it’s implied to have slowly ended over time, sure, but I’m not getting it in the book!! - and instead it comes all at once. It makes each relationship seem abrupt, which makes it even more abrupt when the next part of the book starts and there’s already a new love interest.
Overall, likely only fine because Marjorie Merriweather Post really is a fascinating person and it’s really interesting to see her mark on American history (did not realize that my hometown music venue of choice was named after her!), and more people should know about her. But the book never felt wholly enjoyable to me - there were parts that I liked, but overall I kept describing this book as “the annoying one” to my husband. Maybe will give the recommended biography a chance to see if that gives Marjorie the depth that I wanted from this book.