SILVER PLATTER
By
Ellin Berlin (novelist and wife of Irving Berlin) tells her family story with her grandmother as protagonist and in it the early chapters of a life of poverty in mining towns contrast with later social triumphs, as the elite of Europe accepted invitations to the fabulous entertainments of Louise Mackay who had been bed by New York's Four Hundred. The closeup of two sides of the American picture is written as fictional biography, perhaps with more appeal as the struggle in California and Nevada is recalled in loving detail for complete understanding of a psychology that put its high value on hard won wealth. Overlong but much of this is fascinating reading.