Robin Agnew
I know most people have books they re-read now and then for comfort. I have a rotating list, but one of my favorites is Patrick Dennis' 1955 classic Auntie Mame. For those of you who have only seen the pretty terrible movies (one with Rosalind Russell, an even worse one with Lucille Ball) the book is a breezy, refreshing delight that is funny every time I re-read it. I recommend it.
My own reading copy was a pathetic mess. It was an old paperback from the late 50's, the pages were all falling out, and I could see the glue on the spine if I took a quick peek. Recently my husband found me a beautiful new reprint copy, with an intoroduction and an afterword by Patrick Dennis' son. This was manna to me.
I was interested to discover that Patirck Dennis (a pen name fore Edward Everett Tanner III) wrote many novels (I have only read two) and when his literary career fizzlied he took up a career as a butler, working for Ray Kroc. This sounded like something Patrick Dennis, the character in the novel, might do.
For those of you unfamiliar with this masterpiece, it's a slight conceit - a young boy (Patrick Dennis) loses his remaining parent and he goes with his Irish nurse to live in New York city with his Aunt Mame, a fate his father told him he "wouldn't wish on a dog, but...beggars can't be choosers." So Patrick, at 10, is unprepared for the sight of his glamorous, nightclub hopping, literati elbow rubbing Aunt, a dyed in the wool liberal and authentic intellectual.
The story is never a polemic but for the mid 50's Auntie Mame's views are pretty radical, and she clashes regularly with Patrick's staid trustee, Mr. Babcock, who seems like a more typical 50's denizen. What sets this episodic novel apart from mere froth (each chapter covers a stage in Patrick's life - school, first love, college, going to war, etc.) is the detailed look at upper class life and it's dissection of class and status. It has the zing of real verisimilitude.
What Patrick ends up wanting is a staid life in the suburbs; apparently the same thing the real life Patrick Dennis wished for and never achieved. The fictional Patrick Dennis finds steady happiness, though you're left wondering at the end of the book if he made the right choice. In any case the book always hooks me in the first chapter when little Patrick's Dad tells him "Pipe down kid, the old man's hung." I settle in happily for the duration, looking forward to another reading of what is really an American classic.
