ADVANCING PAUL NEWMAN

by Eleanor Bergstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1973

While ostensibly this follows the McGovern campaign train in New Hampshire -- Paul Newman and peanut butter -- actually this is the story of Ilia Rappaport and Kitsy Frank who had met each other in Europe in 1959 after graduation and have been mobile ever since -- namely going nowhere. Or as Miss Bergstein, a clever young woman puts it -- each of them suspecting ""the other of a more passionate connection with life."" Life for Kitsy seems to be a job as a literary agent and marriage to Jerry, a poet about to be in residence, and marriage to Louis who is killed and others. Life for Ila consists of odd jobs (she is a Kelly girl for a time) and writing (only one which is publishable) stories for The New Yorker and a lot of men but only Loren, at the start, who seems to count for a time. The story -- that may bean overestimation -- is shared between them and part of the trouble is that they're almost as indistinguishable as the Double Mint twins. Its best feature is its smart, literal photomontage of those years all accessorized with films or Marilyn Monroe's death or Kennedy's assassination or shopping at Bendel's or anything which two unattached young women might be doing which won't really advance their lives or Paul Newman.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION