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Summary
Summary
"Illuminates the experience of an entire generation of women . . . This small gem of a book is worthy of a Tiffany box." -- The New York Times Book Review
"A memoir every reader will wish to copy in her own size." -- Glamour
"Ilene Beckerman's sleek little memoir . . . strikes a startling chord. . . . Unsettling and oddly powerful." -- People
"Surprisingly poetic." -- Entertainment Weekly
"[A] poignant biography. . . . This little book will charm anyone with an interest in style." -- USA Today
The book behind the Off-Broadway sensation, adapted by Nora and Delia Ephron.
Ilene Beckerman's runaway bestseller articulates something all women know: that our memories are often tied to our favorite clothes. From her Brownie uniform to her Pucci knockoff to her black strapless Rita Hayworth-style dress from the Neiman Marcus outlet store, Ilene Beckerman tells us the story of her life.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This captivating little pictorial autobiography for adults, a life told through clothes, features Beckerman's brightly colored drawings of the vestments she wore at different times in her life, accompanied by diarylike entries. She grew up in Manhattan in the 1940s and '50s, and we see her elementary school outfit, ballet costume, prom dress, etc. After her mother died, her grandparents, not wanting her to live with her father, took in Ilene and her sister; she never saw her father again. In 1955, at 20, she married her 37-year-old sociology professor in Boston. They soon divorced, and in her second marriage, which also ended in divorce, she had six children, losing one in infancy. She is now v-p of an advertising agency. Beckerman's extremely reticent text never illuminates these events, but her minimalist self-portrait is a wry commentary on the pressures women constantly face to look good. 40,000 first printing; first serial to the New York Times Magazine. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Advertising executive Beckerman remembers things past not by way of biting into a madeleine but by way of the clothes she was wearing when she bit into it. And rather than a Proustian floodtide, her memories come in succinct images, narrated in an impersonally dry, flat tone that gives the same weight to her youthful excitement over wearing the ``pink, green and black iridescent metallic plaid taffeta gown'' her mother made as it gives to the death, years later, of her 18-month-old son. By contrast, Beckerman's colorful drawings of dresses, hairdos, even underclothes from the 1940s, '50s, '60s, and '70s have a delightful unschooled charm. While Beckerman's life has had its ups and downs, her story is mostly devoid of interest; but her wardrobe has always been enviableespecially that ``iridescent brocade Chinese-style dinner dress'' her first ex-husband urged her to buy because it showed off her pretty arms. You might want to look at the clothes and make up your own story as you go alongsort of like playing with Barbie. (First printing of 40,000; first serial to the New York Times Magazine)
