As we did in 2021 and 2023, we're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. After a review posts, we try to do a discussion with the reviewer. This go round, we're talking with Elaine about her "A really bad book gets reviewed -- plus Paul Rudnick, Diana Ross, Chase Rice, Sam Smith" -- a review of Tina Brown's THE VANITY FAIR DIARIES. Elaine, you did not like Tina Brown's book at all.
Elaine:
Tina Brown had some success in the UK in revamping tired magazines. In 1984, in the US, she was tasked with revamping VANITY FAIR. She'd do on to THE NEW YORKER where she really embarrassed herself -- that's not covered in the 'book.' And, no, I did not like the book. It was fake and phony and she rewrote entries from her
diary without acknowledging that. She also wrote poorly throughout.
An example?
Elaine;
This is her as a poor writer, unable to develop a thread and carry it
through a few pages. VANITY FAIR, the diaries cover the period of time
when she was in charge of the magazine, wants to do a cover with Jessica
Lange. Annie Leibovitz is shooting something else and doesn't
want to drop it. She says that she will only do the Jessica Lange shoot
if they can use a white horse, a white background, etc. Many pages
later, she suddenly remembers the cover. It is taking place as she
writes and it is going awful. They brought the white horse from,
apparently, the streets of New York and there are problems with an
elevator and more issues. This is actually interesting, though she
dropped the ball on the topic, and it is much more interesting than
Gloria Steinem's thoughts on the sex lives of Little People -- she calls
them the d-word. But, yet again, it gets dropped. Instead, we get
tired and dull tales that read like bad gossip columns about who she had
dinner with and other arcane trivia that has nothing to do with her
overseeing a magazine.
So that's how she fails as a story teller. You also told us Saturday that she failed as a writer.
Elaine:
Yes. She trashed a man who writes captions for VANITY FAIR. She
thinks he writes them poorly. Here's the example she gives -- there's a photo of Harold Ramis holding his daughter upside down on a sand dune and the caption writer wrote: "Ramis holding his daughter upside down on a sand dune." Then a few pages later, she writes "THE NEW YORK TIMES reporter Alex Jones slagged off VF's prospects in THE NEW YORK TIMES last week so I asked him to lunch"? How is that sentence not an embarrassment to her? The photo caption was better than that.
You loathed the book.
Elaine:
I loathed it and then some. New York in the mid to late 80s publishing
world should have made for a very lively read. Instead, it left me
yawning nonstop and struggling to keep my eyes open. If you want to read a gossip page, go read Page Six, What passes for gossip with her is dull and boring.
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Previous book discussions:
"Books (Ruth, Jim, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Stan, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Dona, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Ty, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Mike, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Stan, Rebecca, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Mike, Ava and C.I.)"