WHAT WOULD GRACE DO?

A heavy-handed, tedious “self-help” book offering precious little in the way of advice—unless listing New York restaurants once patronized by Grace Kelly counts as advice.

Purportedly written as a “modern-day guide to the classic beauty and timeless style of the Hollywood starlet and real-life princess, Grace Kelly,” the narrative is just an amalgamation of the juicy bits of the books McKinnon (1001 Ridiculous Sexual Misadventures, 2009, etc.) has read about Kelly in the last year. Did you know Grace had a difficult relationship with her father? Have you heard she had affairs with her co-stars? Or that her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco was “no fairytale”? Do you know the difference between being fashionable and possessing “true style”? If not, you will learn all that and more from this mediocre book. The advice about how to “channel Grace” in one's everyday life ranges from the obvious and unspecific (“Exude confidence,” “Make friends from all walks of life,” “Remember birthdays,” “Keep in touch”) to the insultingly out of reach (“Stay at the Savoy when in London”). The author's attempts at humor are often strained: “now it's time to put your life in the dock and subpoena your inner Grace. As a witness in the vagaries of life, we can't think of anyone more expert than she”; “Keep with tradition and don’t show your husband your dress…or what’s underneath it until your wedding day.”

Readers eager to learn more about Grace Kelly would be better served by reading Donald Spoto's High Society (2009) or Wendy Leigh's True Grace (2007), both of which are quoted at length here. Readers who wish to be more like Kelly would be better off watching her films.