It is no secret to regular readers that I do - gasp! - read Vogue. I have had a subscription since I was a wee one. Which is to say that I've aspired to be a Vogue girl, teen, gal, lady, woman for most of my life. Yes, magazines that glorify thinness are wrong. Yes, it's sort of counterintuitive to be trying to write a novel and get paid as a writer and also drool over irresponsibly expensive clothing that I don't need and likely wouldn't wear if I owned and that certainly won't do anything to stop the problems of global warming, violence in Darfur and all the reindeer games our government is playing. Okay? I get it. I know the vagaries of this pursuit, but it's one I keep coming back to when I need a break from the heavy lifting that is reading & discussing literature, documentaries and all the things that are wrong with the world in the hope that we might someday be able to fix it. (Also, it's not like I buy Cosmo and Us. Geez.)
In the context of all these things that I know (and have now, hopefully, confirmed for you that I know), it is always interesting to see what books Vogue chooses to highlight. Review would be putting too fine a point on it. Highlight, gloss over, mention in brief would be more accurate. I'll even let you in a little, though dirty, secret: sometimes they direct me toward an excellent book that I might not have known about. Imagine that. Could it be the Conde Nast connection to The New Yorker and some cross-pollination among those choosing the books? Perhaps.
So, from time to time, I'll be taking a look at the books they highlight in their monthly issue. The latest April 2007 issue, sadly, is not the best example with which to make my point - that Vogue does have something valuable to add to the conversation - but, sigh, I'll carry on. Add to this formula the fact that several well-known literary writers have made appearances in Vogue articles for decades. So. It can't be all bad all the time, right? Toss this in too: at least there is book coverage. Right? More than we can say for some well-known newspapers...
Now, on to the April 2007 issue:
- Megan O'Grady highlights Hermione Lee's Edith Wharton biography and declares it: "...wonderfully humanizing, keenly reasoned" and little else. Most of the mention gives an overview of Wharton's life and her fiery missives & letters to all manner of folk. (For the record, I do think this would be a fabulous, interesting read. So, score one point for Vogue.)
- Crafty product tie-in: Right next to Lee's book mention is another book: The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicolson. The smooth transition is made thusly: "With all the dramatic sweep of a Wharton novel, Juliet Nicholson's upcoming [book] recalls a season of change..." I hate the trying too hard tie-in here. I don't even want to waste my time thinking about the editorial meeting in which they struggled to come up with a book to fill that portion of the page. Ugh. Minus one point. Possibly two.
- Megan O'Grady also devotes a 3-column quickie to Maxine Swann's Flower Children - "a spellbinding novel-in-stories about the progeny of Harvard educated hipsters growing up in a Pennsylvania farmhosue in the seventies and eighties." Hmmm. No obvious tie-in. Perhaps this is an honest attempt to point out work that Megan likes/finds important in some way? Consider the score even.
- A different Megan, Megan Conway, has a little blurb on Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez. This is the tale of a woman who went to Afghanistan as an aid worker, but found she could actually do more good by...opening a beauty school. Hmmm. This rubs me the wrong way and then of course, buried in the text I see that the school "was in part funded by Vogue." Product placement aside, I guess I could see how creating jobs, training and an opportunity for many Afghani women to feel good about themselves in a society that is constantly trying to undermine them...might not be a bad thing. But isn't it a little fishy to plug a book about a program you paid for? Perhaps that's why the mention is so brief? Editorial guilt? It did, however, get a starred review in Publisher's Weekly. Oh my. I think I'll need to toss this whole scoring thing out the window.
- Now we move on to Africa, which seems to be the theme chosen for the People Are Talking About: Books section. After a thorough review of the issue's clothing editorial, I'm unable to detect any safari-esque lines featured by Prada or Rodarte or desert color schemes on the near fashion horizon, so this may be a genuine interest, albeit rather theme-y. This section highlights three books:
- Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton by Sarah Wheeler
- When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race by Judith Stone
- Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm by Lauren St. John
- Must now go back and re-visit clothing editorial for the memoir angle, eh?
- I'm guessing, however, that it went more like this: Blood Diamond came out, people liked that, right? Africa and all that. And, look, we just got this press release for Too Close to the Sun, which - oh my gosh - is also about Africa. I know, I know, let's find two more books that are coming out soon that are also about Africa and we'll have a whole section! With a theme!
- Credit where credit is due: there ARE several books out in recent weeks about Africa and it is at least refreshing to see that Vogue has chosen three books that were completely off my radar as far as this trend is concerned.
So, there you have it. Vogue's look at books for April 2007. Two whole days before April begins. Think how far ahead of the fashion curve you are now. I'll be back next month to dissect the May issue. I promise to do more homework on the book editors themselves (lest I have now gotten myself into an ugly pickle and called out someone who is a well-known, critically-acclaimed literary scholar and I'll be banished from the kingdom, never to blog again) so that I can provide another (the only?) layer of depth to the proceedings.
