THE PAPER DOLLS

by Laura Beheler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 21, 1956

Miss Beheler has developed here, uncomfortably and uncompromisingly, the story of a girl who never grew up to put away her childish things. If it is something of a case history, literal and inevitable, it is also quietly devastating . Ida Erickson had her paper dolls as an escape from early disappointments: the ouster of her glamorous young uncle- Johnny; the uneasiness between her parents which ended in a divorce; her inability to reach her mother now committed to a lonely life. But she could never trade them in for anything more real. At 23, she goes to New York with Allan, lives with him but is unready to marry him; she is homesick for Ella, her mother, and indulges the vista of a closer, warmer life with her; she is probed and prodded by Wally, a friend, to give up her memories and her frail fantasies- and she starts to drink; and the news from home that Ella will marry finds her alone and abandoned as she makes her last escape.... Disconsolate as much of this is, it is disquieting too; if it is read at all- it will be remembered.

Pub Date: Aug. 21, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION