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jeanner222
Dec 26, 2012jeanner222 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I’m not sure of the meaning of this novel’s title—very little mirth here, at least for our main character, Lily Bart. Turn of the century New York sets the stage for Lily’s story. Lily walks a tightrope amongst the elite of the city. She is not wealthy; she is a hanger-on. She is beautiful, very beautiful, and her beauty is her currency. As she ages and still fails to marry, despite her beauty, Lily begins to swim in dangerous waters. What is most troubling is that her failure to marry is her own fault. She doesn’t want to marry for just money, even though that is precisely what she needs to do. Of course, such a naïve notion becomes her downfall. And her downfall is sad and ugly. I really enjoyed the first half of the novel, in which Lily still had status amongst the elite. The second half of the novel, which chronicles her downward spiral, is slow and depressing.