Allison Pataki

Fiction 2022/ 285 pages

I guess it is my fault.  I had heard about The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post and read about it also.  I apparently misunderstood.  I thought it was about a highly successful business tycoon, leader, strategist, dynasty.  It is not.  It is about a woman who plays a peripheral role in the company her father built.

MID-READ REVIEW.  I am exactly half-way through, page 192, and Marjorie Post has not done a bit of business so far.  It has been all about her love life, her children, her entertaining, her parties, her multiple homes, her money, her staffs, and a BIT about non-profit work.  I am sorely disappointed.  That is not what I understood this book to be about.  I thought it was about a business success story.

The story covers a surfeit of money among the Posts, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Roosevelts, and a score of others. I found the ostentatious excesses of the super-rich turned my stomach at times.  (Do I have a bit of communism in my blood?) Yes,  Marjorie Post gives away millions for health care facilities, to support our troops in the Great War, to provide food and shelter during the Great Depression.  She uses her money well and for superbly excellent needs.  However, the overabundance still upsets me. The last of many mansions she built for herself and her family had 125 rooms, with huge numbers of staff. And the art she collects is impressive.  Not to mention all the custom gowns and clothing from Paris and other fashion hotbeds.

That all being said, the writing is delicious. Pataki writes a biography in first person; not always an easy feat to accomplish. The main theme of the books is about Marjorie and her four husbands.  I thought these relationships were presented with depth, insight, sorrow, and aplomb.  You may enjoy reading The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post.  Many readers have.  I cannot advise you to put it at the top of your reading list.

July 2024