THE BIRD OF PARADISE

by Lily Powell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1970

The bird of paradise, the mother of Louise, the young narrator, lives in a very gilded cage and the paramount interest here is not so much in the people who surround her but in the lifestyle of the ""world which arrogantly called itself le monde."" This must have been the author's background and it is elegant, faintly mannered, cosmopolitan and hybrid as is the prose where as many as four or five French phases stipple the pages, sometimes unnecessarily (""toast-and-confiture sweetened kisses""). To some this high-toned prettification of le ton will be a welcome reminder, to others an irritant. Retrospectively, Louise fills in the facts many of which she could only have learned much later about her mother Marguerite, immaculately beautiful, extravagant, vain, and sometimes attempting to find a love outside her dull marriage to an American diplomat; or her closest friend, Suzy, with an aromatic aura of horses and lovers; or Jacques Le Breton, always on intimate terms with them all who has lots of ""chien"" but none of the money he needs to put on the dog; or Marguerite's sister Helen, drifting into debts and drugs; etc., etc. Miss Powell, attuned to her ambit, is also worldly in the wisest sense of the word and if cross-matched comparisons are to be made, there's a little of Sybille Bedford, a little of Simone de Beauvoir, but lots more whipped cream than in either. The scene is Berlin and Vienna, with Deauville or Juan-les-Pins only a suggestion away; the time is the late '20's, and since you are not encouraged to care about any of these frivolous people, it may all seem longer ago.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION