Frivolous fun
The Debutante Divorcee
Author: Plum Sykes
Publisher: Fig Tree, 250 pages
BERGDORF Blondes is the last book about spoilt, rich New York socialites I will ever read.” Did I really say that in my review of Plum Sykes’s first book? I guess I forgot, because I read The Debutante Divorcee (DD), Sykes’s second novel about a whole lot of very spoilt, very rich New York socialites.
To continue the trend, these girls are also rather silly and shallow. And they are totally out of touch with the real world and real people, that is, anyone who has to worry about paying the rent or shops at K-Mart. The only difference this time is that I did not find myself totally hating this lot of young, fluffy fashion plates. No, I did not feel sorry for them either.
Some may see the debutante divorcee of the title as the archetypal poor little rich girl, but as Sykes does not give you even the slightest glimpse of the person behind the designer wear and swish lifestyle, it is hard to look beyond the fabulous jewels and ermine-trimmed underwear and feel anything but fascinated revulsion.
Anyway. This is not going to be a (total) bitchfest. I did enjoy this book – I just wish I had been able to afford a room at The Datai in Langkawi so I could read it while lounging by the pool in my Pucci bikini!
Seriously, this is the perfect beach-holiday novel. Read it, lap up the decadent descriptions of designer wear, roll your eyes and forget it all in an instant (yes, it might be a laugh but it’s utterly forgettable), or read it and feel really depressed because, unlike the girls in DD, you have a nine-to-five job and/or have to take the bus and/or buy your shoes at Bata.
DD is like a text-only version of Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar. Like those magazines, it may make you want more than you can afford and wish to be thinner than is healthy. Or it may make you thank your lucky stars you are not living in cloud cuckooland, in which case, you would be reading it for a bit of mindless entertainment (which we all need sometimes) and not for inspiration (heaven forbid).
“You obviously just don’t get Plum,” said a gay acquaintance of mine after he read my stinking review of Bergdorf Blondes. This little fairy once told me how he had burst into tears after seeing a pair of to-die-for Prada shoes in a store window and realised that he could not get them because he had reached his credit limit. No wonder he “gets” Plum! He could be a character in her books if he were not, the last time I checked, jobless and (more to the point) penniless.
Meow! I guess I have picked up something from DD. Love it I don’t, but I definitely recommend it. But remember, read it only for some frivolous fun ? and to remind yourself how not to live your life!
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