Customer Reviews

The Friend of Women and Other Stories

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No one writes of the New York uppercrust as does our venerable Louis. Not even Henry James or Edith Wharton capture the empty-hearted veneers with such elan and verve and always just the cleverest turn of phrase. The title story resonates well with Auchincloss' classic RECTOR OF JUSTIN. I've always regreted that he didn't write more school stories because he does them so well. The other three stories do not fail to charm and entertain amid the Victorian penthouses and Wall Street legal and financial offices. The one-act play that concludes this slim volume harkens to Restoration romantic comedies, with just the slightest edge of the more contemporary domestic dramas of Lanford Wilson and Edward Albee. Wit and les bon mots abound. This book would serve well as an introduction to Auchincloss and his vision of a very changed and changing world. If it suits you, then I'd also try his BOOK CLASS and of course, RECTOR.

Reading Louis Auchincloss is a pleasurable exercise for the brain, but reviewing Mr. Auchincloss is a bit of a challenge, namely because his stories, so cerebrally enjoyable while being read, quickly smear together afterwards, as his situations, characters, events, professions, dialogue all contain so little variations from story to story that they rapidly merge into what becomes in hindsight almost like a novel. Louis Auchincloss is an American treasure and a master of his art form, but he concentrates so exclusively on one particular place and class of people that even now I have difficulty citing a single story from this collection, except the title story, that distinguishes itself upon recollection. Oh, to be sure, as I read the short stories in The Friend of Women I was impressed at this writer's grasp and deft expertise and above all his intimate familiarly with old New York's upper crust, but in remembrance I find myself left feeling great fondness for the anthology as a whole, but am almost unable to recall a single story off the top of my head. Is that a criticism? No, not exactly, but in my experience it's unique to Mr. Auchincloss' works. Four and a half stars.