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.
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