A review by wreathedinviolets
Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West by Matthew Dennison

5.0

Vita is vivacious and wealthy, creatively inclined and stubborn; her life conveys it as such. Dennison shapes her character with such clarity that finishing the book and reading about her death was almost painful, especially in the decline leading up to it. Starting out, I was mostly interested in getting more context in the relationship between Vita and Violet after reading a collection of Violet's letters, but gained so much more than I expected. It's more than welcoming to read about a lesbian who was open enough with her relationships a hundred years ago that we still have detailed record of it today. Although Dennison's writing was blissfully free of any kind of homophobia, I still wonder if the book would've come out any differently through the eyes of a female author. Still, this is by far one of the most enjoyable NF books I've read.