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Good writing is worth the pain
Date of Review: Mar 18, 2001
The Bottom Line: If you can stomach the repetitive poses and clothes, there is a good piece of writing in there somewhere.
This is magazine fills its pages with the long-legged-drug-induced-blackened-eyes-oversized-drooping-lips look to such an extreme it is clearly the work of a cult of obsessive/complusives. Interspersed are adorable memoirs by former debutantes, current debutantes, and special people that are not like us, the reader. Or like anyone else except the freaks pictured here.
But once in a while even this hermetically sealed world leaks. There is, if you can find it, some good writing cleverly hidden between the mini-skirts and Manolos.
In the very back of the February issue, Julia Reed tells us all about pearls. Apparently there is a big difference in types of pearls. Forget Majorca pearls, they turn out to be glass beads coated with fish scales. Eeewww! Cultured pearls are "good girl" pearls, whereas the pearls Ms Reed describes are "big girl" pearls, as in sexy and expensive ($127,000 for a strand of goldens). She learns to tell a sub-standard globe from mighty one, then travels to the Philippines to find a good bargain on her first set of big girl pearls. In the end she settles for baroque, a less expensive good pearl, until she is able to afford the best.
Also in this issue, two fine writers Hilton Als and Daphne Merkin, make cameo writing appearances. And is that model on page 258 one-breasted?
The March Vogue is huge and boring, except way in the back behind the weak pieces on strong women, Jeffrey Steingarten enlightens us about caviar - the history, the color, the cost, the texture, the taste, and the particular popping of the egg against the roof of his mouth releasing the caviar essence. Well written without a wit of superiority.
Even though this magazine must cause the mail carrier to wince, the March 2001 issue is the size of a telephone book and weighs over 3lbs, its worth a dollar a month (by subscription) for a some very fine writing.
