Auntie Mame is one of those pop cultural things I've been aware of for as long as I can remember without actually knowing what it was. It was only when I read about the rerelease of Patrick Dennis's book that I even knew it was a book. Or rather, it was a book first and then a play, a musical, a couple of films and a TV show. I had utterly no idea what to expect but it was set in New York in the 1920s so I thought it was probably my kind of thing and I was right.
I loved it. I loved the character of Mame and that of the narrator, ostensibly Pat Dennis himself, although that was a pseudonym and the book is fiction (albeit originally marketed as memoir). And although there were a couple of chapters focussing on the racism of the time, which I found both shocking and fascinating, in the main it's actually charming and laugh-out-loud funny.
It reminded me a lot of Joe Keenan's novels, particularly My Lucky Star.
But the most interesting thing for me was the afterword. For some strange reason it was translated from Italian (the book's really popular in Italy, I believe) and it was also apparently cobbled together from the only two books available about Patrick Dennis. But it was a short portrait of what sounds like a fasinating man who led an astonishing life.
I'll definitely be reading more books by - and about - Patrick Dennis. I'll also be checking out the Auntie Mame movie.
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