Review: The Last American Heiresses

The Last American Heiresses by Stephen Greco
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I would never have picked this book had I realized that this is the same author that wrote Such Good Friends: A Novel of Truman Capote & Lee Radziwill. This is a perfect book club choice. You will love this book if you love lush, never-ending descriptions of clothing, decor, architecture, art, dated gossip, and a supposed friendship between the two wealthiest women in America (at the time).

Frankly, I just don't have what it takes to enjoy books of this caliber. I need something that takes me away from this world. I need something that will make me think, laugh, cry, and use my imagination, something that will pique my curiosity. This book did none of those things for me. It felt as if the longer I read it, the longer the book became until I felt that it would never end.

I wanted to read more about Emma and Ollie and the film she was making. That would have been interesting. Instead, we got a book about the two most selfish women in the world.
I understand that the rich are different from the likes of me, but this was just a mishmash of spoiled, entitled behavior---yes, yes, I know it was a different era. I think what really did it for me was the apparent padding of this book with all of the never-ending descriptions---of EVERYTHING.


The era that is the basis for this book will make it a little awkward for those of us who were born in the late 50's and only know of some of these people when they were already past their prime. But, on the other hand, if you are much younger than me, then you might find this an exciting slice of mid to late-20th-century history. But, of course, it is history about the wealthy jet-setters, and it only touches briefly on anything significant that was going on in America at the time.

Although this wasn't my cup of tea, I think that many out in Bookland will enjoy this look into the rich and famous.

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SYNOPSIS: "A dazzling novel that draws readers into the ultra-glamorous lives of legendary heiresses Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton, the public rivalry that defined them, and the secret bond that sustained them both, from the author of the acclaimed Such Good Friends.

The press dubs them “the Gold Dust twins.” Born within a week of one another in Manhattan in 1912, Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton both inherit unimaginable fortunes. By the time of their lavish
coming-out balls, they are two of the richest women in the world. Barbara, heiress to the Woolworth millions, amasses seven husbands over her lifetime. Doris, meanwhile, has a sophistication and financial savvy that Barbara tries endlessly to emulate.
 
When filmmaker Emma Radetsky begins researching her new documentary about prominent women and their jewelry collections, she’s familiar with the lore surrounding both Doris and Barbara—the couture gowns, exotic homes, and romantic interludes—including sequential marriages to the same notorious playboy. And of course, the priceless jewels they acquire as easily as candy.
 
Yet delving into their backgrounds with the help of one of Doris’s closest companions, Oliver Wendell Shaw, Emma encounters a deeper story—of a private game to manipulate the media, and a hidden, life-long kinship between two complex women who understood each other as no one else could.
 
Interweaving past and present, filled with sumptuous details from an age of excess, Stephen Greco’s novel is also a mesmerizing story about the nature of celebrity and the transformative power of friendship."