PALM BEACH

by John Ney ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

John Ney is a ""professional ghostwriter"" and he has been living in Palm Beach for the last few years; his opening chapter is a Chamber of Commerce commercial to its ""creamy attractiveness,"" ""hope"" and ""magic,"" further substantiated by its royal family, the Kennedys. However, seemingly unintentionally, the sun tan fades: most of the people who find it ""infra dig to work,"" pursue the cult of youth and money; there are no artist-intellectuals who ""quote from Time and the New Yorker""; its old hotels, the Breakers and the Colony, seem dismally dingy; there aren't too many real night spots; the food is poor; once glamorously gala, it is changing--there's a new cultural emphasis and a liberalization of racial attitudes. Henry James really tagged its social ambience correctly; Cleveland Amory did not. As for John Ney, he finds ""Everything about Palm Beach...a contradiction."" So is the book--a little of everything and nothing.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION