The missing episode was found years later by the author's widow and finally included in a 1990 reprint. Due to the recent Senator McCarthy and his communist witch hunt, Harcourt Brace deemed the chapter too controversial. The original manuscript included a chapter, "Auntie Mame and Mother Russia." which was not in the 1958 edition. The most interesting thing about the #4 bestseller of 1958 is its publishing history. Like the first book, not ennnnitirely sold on the framing device, but ultimately you can't stay mad at Mame. Why this didn't come up like 2.5 years earlier, not sure, and then Mame shows up with the kid (and a yak) and all is forgiven. Dowager Countess has nothing on her.Īnd the overall message of the book when he's done remembering his year abroad with Mame, he's no longer really mad at her, and his wife seems comforted. She speaks several languages, some better than others, can whip up batches of hootch, and she often has great or sly rejoiners. I think what this book does so well for a comedy is Mame is very smart (and a Smithie), without being omniscient like a Jeeves. Mame takes on the French stage, English high society (ah Lady Gravell-Pitt), a comedy of errors with Vera (there's a lot of Vera in this book, which is a wonderful thing) in Biarritz, siccing the fascists on a Southern racist in Venice, outwitting Nazis in the Tyrol mountains, life on a communal farm in Russia, starting trouble in the Middle East, and embroiled in gunsmuggling in China. ![]() As he tells his story, it has to all be highly santized for the wife, because in each country, something nutty happened where for the most part, they have to flee in the night. And just when I was what? Is this some grimdark thriller now, where Mame is a child abuser, and he calms his wife down at their sad and lonely Xmas, recounting a time when Mame kidnapped him his senior year in high school and went on an around the world trip. So the book already starts off pretty bold itself and not really in a "haha funny" spot. He hates his office, because no news from the State Department over his kidnapped son, and hates to go home at night because his wife detests him for letting his crazy aunt steal their child. It's now 2 and a half years later and Patrick is falling apart. When we last saw her, Auntie Mame came back from trip abroad to spirit away Patrick's 7 year old son a trip to India. The cover has a blurb on it that says "Funnier than the first book" and I even snorted when I saw that. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Cantwell doing the demolition derby dance in their little Lebanese retreat, whence Mame retires after a camel-riding incident that.well, never mind, that would be telling instead of reading, and you should read the book. The misadventures of Mame in Venice alone ("Horsefeathers" by itself has the power to make me fall about laughing, you'll see why when you read the book) would make this book worth reading.but Lady Gravell-Pitt! Schloss Stinkenbach! Sari Mont d'Or and Mrs. Boniface Academy for a graduation trip to Europe with Mame. In Auntie Mame, Patrick is whisked off at the end of his "education" at St. ![]() ![]() And, I failed to mention in my review of Auntie Mame, the cover and title-page art is just *perfect*! Edwin Fotheringham, the artist, even has a perfect Mame-ish name. How I appreciate Broadway Books (once a unit of Doubleday, now part of Random House's Crown Publishing Group) for rescuing these hilarious romps from final obscurity. ![]() Well, that's not such a big deal, really, since the entire book made me laugh out loud several dozen times. This 2003 edition even restores a snarky little satire on Soviet collectivism that was excised from the original book."Auntie Mame and Mother Russia".that made me laugh out loud. The sequel to Auntie Mame appeared in 1958, and was published of the pieces that didn't fit the original frame of "My Most Unforgettable Character." (Remember those? Reader's Digest was such a bland magazine, but those were always fun to read.) This time the frame is Patrick trying to keep his irascible wife Pegeen from killing him for letting Mame have their son for a little vacation.of two and a half years!.by telling her of his own life with Mame. Oh dear, oh dear, however shall I survive? There is no more Auntie Mame-age available, nor ever shall be, since Dennis is dead these 35 years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |