An edition of Borrowed Finery: A Memoir (2001)

Borrowed finery

a memoir

1st ed.
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Last edited by ImportBot
December 6, 2022 | History
An edition of Borrowed Finery: A Memoir (2001)

Borrowed finery

a memoir

1st ed.
  • 8 Want to read
  • 1 Have read

"Born in the twenties to nomadic, bohemian parents, Paula Fox is left at birth in a Manhattan orphanage. Rescued at the last moment, she is taken into the care of a poor but cultivated Congregational minister in upstate New York. But her parents soon resurface.

Her handsome father is a hard-drinking raconteur and screenwriter (among his credits is The Last Train to Madrid, called by Graham Greene "the worst movie I ever saw") who is, for young Paula, "part ally, part betrayer." Her mother, a frightening, infrequent presence, is given to icy bursts of temper that punctuate a deep indifference. How, Fox wonders, is this woman "enough of an organic being to have carried me in her belly?"".

"Never sharing more than a few scattered moments with their daughter, Fox's parents shuttle her from one exotic place to another. In New York City she lives with her passive Spanish grandmother. In Cuba she wanders about freely on a sugarcane plantation owned by a wealthy distant relative. In Florida she is left with a housekeeper she has known only for days. In California she finds herself cast away on the dismal margins of Hollywood.

Throughout, famous actors and literary celebrities glitteringly appear and then fade away - John Wayne, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Maxwell Perkins, Orson Welles, James Cagney, and Stella Adler, to name a few. The thread binding Fox's wanderings is the "borrowed finery" of the title - a few pieces of clothing, almost always lent by kindhearted strangers, that offer Fox a rare glimpse of permanency."--BOOK JACKET.

Publish Date
Publisher
Henry Holt
Language
English
Pages
210

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Previews available in: Undetermined English

Edition Availability
Cover of: A memoir
A memoir
2003, Ted Smart
in Undetermined
Cover of: Borrowed Finery
Borrowed Finery
June 2, 2003, Flamingo
Cover of: BORROWED FINERY
BORROWED FINERY: A MEMOIR.
2002, Ted Smart
Cover of: Borrowed finery
Borrowed finery: a memoir
2002, Flamingo
in English
Cover of: Borrowed finery
Borrowed finery: a memoir
2001, Henry Holt
in English - 1st ed.

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
New York
Genre
Biography.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
813/.54, B
Library of Congress
PS3556.O94 Z464 2001, PS3556.O94Z464 2001

The Physical Object

Pagination
210 p. :
Number of pages
210

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL6791253M
Internet Archive
borrowedfineryme00foxp
ISBN 10
0805068155
LCCN
00054398
OCLC/WorldCat
45715075
Library Thing
17808
Goodreads
1976578

Work Description

In this moving and unusual memoir - this portrait of a life adrift - there are many things Paula can't remember, many things she can't explain, but the gaps are telling, signifying a child's quiet acceptance of the way things are.

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History

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December 6, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
February 25, 2022 Edited by JeneeWhitney Merge works
February 25, 2022 Edited by JeneeWhitney Merge works
August 12, 2021 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
October 16, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page