1930s Fashion: The Definitive Sourcebook, by Charlotte Fiell; intro. By Emmanuelle Dirix. Welbeck, 2021

Like her volume on 1920s fashion, this book clocks in at 500 pages, almost all of them photos and drawings from the era. Once again, most of the magazine pages and ads show the back side of the clothing, which I really like as a sewist of old fashioned costume. I found the introduction to be much more interesting than the one in the 20s book; it talks about the newly burgeoning film industry affected women’s dress- French idea and design, slightly changed Hollywood version, home pattern with less details. (oh, how I wish Hollywood had costume designs like those these days!) Hollywood fashion was luxurious and extremely glamourous, despite of the Depression (or, perhaps, because of- huge, beautiful movies and larger than life stars to take people’s minds off their money problems) and women sewed up their own versions of backless evening gowns and fake fur stoles. After ten or so years of a boyish figure being the ideal form, women, while still slim, were expected now to have a bustline and hips. Nail polish arrived on the scene, a by-product of the car enamal industry, and eye makeup was everywhere. Four and a half stars.

The Age of Light, by Whitney Scharer. Little, Brown and Company, 2018

In 1929, American Lee Miller moved to Paris to become a photographer. She was not stranger to cameras; she had a career as a model of Vogue, and her father used her as a model from toddlerhood on. But she doesn’t want to be a model anymore; she wants to be a creator of art, rather than someone to be gazed upon. These are the days of the Dada and Surrealist movements, of Picasso and Cocteau. She hasn’t been there long before she meets the much older Man Ray and they soon develop a relationship that is sexual, emotional, creative, and business. He teaches her the art and tricks of photography, while she takes care of the business of his studio. He nurtures her talent, but is very possessive, even, at one point, claiming a technique she developed as his own. She is possessive in some ways, too; she was obsessed with Kiki de Montparnasse, Ray’s ex who had posed nude many times.

Miller is not all about Ray, though. She was a war photographer during WW 2, going into dangerous areas; this is the part of her life she is most renowned for. She later became a 5 star chef and a food writer for Vogue- and also an alcoholic. This is an engrossing story of a woman trying to make it in the world on her own considerable talents, rather than as the wife or mistress of a man. Along with the standards of the time that dismissed women as trivial, she had to fight to overcome having had a pretty creepy father and a childhood rape. I loved the eccentric characters that she knew during the 30s, and the descriptions of the parties and dinners. Miller and Ray are extremely interesting characters, but frequently unlikable ones. The writing is lovely. Four stars.

A Garden of Earthly Delights, by Joyce Carol Oates. Vanguard Press, 1966

While I’ve certainly not read all of Joyce Carol Oates’s work, I’d be willing to say that her work isn’t joyous. And this book takes the lack of joy- the lack to *any* form of happiness- to nose bleeding heights.

Clara is born into misery. Her parents are migrant fruit pickers in the Great Depression. They own nothing and live in shacks on the farms for a few weeks before moving on. They can never make enough to escape this life. Her father copes by drinking, fighting, beating his wife and kids (except for Clara), and committing adultery. Constant pregnancy eventually kills her mother. This doesn’t change much; Clara has been taking care of the younger siblings for years. One evening in ‘town’ she meets an unusual man- one who doesn’t want to have sex with her. She stays out late, and when she returns to her shack, her father brutally beats her. She runs away, and with this man’s help, starts a new life with a room of her own, a bed of her own, and a job at a dime store. This is luxury beyond anything she’s ever known.

Her life becomes one of securing her place in the world. In her quest she loses friends and is scorned by all, but gains financial security and doesn’t care a bit. All her life, she is defined by both men- her father, her boyfriend, her husband, her son- and by her lust for *things*; clothing, furniture, jewelry. In a humanizing touch, she is also an avid gardener, reveling in planting and weeding and pruning, even after she has enough money that she could afford to hire someone. It seems to be her single creative outlet or interest. She’s not a bad person, despite what the townspeople think; she’s just very driven to never be like her parents. She learns to read on her own, and watches other people to learn how to behave.

The prose, despite the grim subject especially in the first part of the book, is brilliant to read. The brutal lives the migrants are living comes vividly, frighteningly, alive. Clara is mostly a sympathetic character. Of course she makes mistakes, some of which have horrible consequences, but she does the best she can in a bad situation. This could have been a depressing read, but for the most part it’s not; it’s oddly uplifting to see Clara make a life for herself and her son.

Note: I read the original 1966 version, not the updated one. 

West of Sunset, by Stewart O’Nan. Viking, 2015

It’s 1937, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of ‘The Great Gatsby” and golden boy of the 1920s, is washed up. Not only is his work not in demand, he has trouble getting it bought at all- his tales of the glamorous rich don’t sell in the grim 1930s. He’s an alcoholic who has been relying on loans to support his wife Zelda in a mental institution and their daughter Scottie in private school. He’s looking for a new life in Hollywood as a screen writer. It seems like he’s got a good start; he’s been hired by a studio and given an office and a weekly paycheck whether he is writing anything or not. He reconnects with old friends: Hemingway, Bogart, Dorothy Parker. It’s a hard drinking crew and they party hard.

But the studio doesn’t seem to like anything he gives them. He wants to write quality and they want happy endings-whether the movie makes sense or not. Fitzgerald is drinking heavily. This leads to more debts, health problems, and tremendous stress on his budding relationship with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham-a relationship already stressed by the fact that Fitzgerald is still married to Zelda.

This is a sad story. Fitzgerald was a hard worker and talented writer, but he could be his own worst enemy when it came to drinking and smoking. Having to pretend to his wife and daughter that everything was okay was incredibly stressful. The ill health that had plagued him for years was getting worse. But he started working on what would become ‘The Last Tycoon’, determined to make a comeback. The author does a good job of recreating the golden age of Hollywood, while also giving the flat effect that stress and depression give to a person struggling like Fitzgerald did- the story is from Fitzgerald’s POV in the third person. While it dragged in a few places, overall it’s a good story. 

The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something, Amazon will give me a few cents. This in no way influenced my review.