Not To Be Confused With "The Day Of The Locust," Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  That Dawn Powell certainly knew how to write roman a clefs about her crowd, girls.  If I was more versed on my late Forties Manhattan history, I might be enable to identify the reality behind the characters she writes about.  Perhaps a more enlightened reader  out there can do that; be my guest!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    What a set of characters.  Frederick Olliver and Lyle Gaynor--Lyle is a woman, girls--who are some Kaufman and Ferber play writing team, who just cannot keep it together, either personally or professionally.  For those who remember Shelley Duvall, as L.A. Joan, in Robert Altman's "Nashville," her stand in here is Dorothy Brennan, aka Dodo, whose behavior is what her name suggests--a wannabe filberty gibbet from Baltimore, who wants to be discovered by the right people, at all the right parties, by doing as little actual work as possible.  Sort of like so many of us when we were young, who learn early, once hitting this town, what Dodo, even at novel's end, fails to learn.  Nevertheless, her machinations and presence make her the most fascinating character in this novel.  Equally odd is her mother, who views her relationship with her daughter, as one more between sisters, than parent and child.  This is by way of falsely keeping her youth, thinking she is fooling everyone, when she is not.  I guess Dawn Powell, in creating them, had to reign them in--otherwise they would over power this novel.

                                      Basically a sketch of assorted wannabes losers--they are the locusts-- the novel offers cultural organizations and bars as gatherings and places of hope for people on this artistic periphery, making it clear that, no matter how high an opinion they may have of themselves, they may never get any farther than they are now.

                                        I am sure Powell included herself among these, as her life and legacy bear out.  Never popular in her day, except among this crowd, her novels are being re-discovered by such as I, and are claiming for themselves a legacy widely deserved, but hitherto unrecognized.

                                         Would Powell were here to see the enjoyment reading her books engenders in many readers.  This was my fourth one, and I look forward to my fifth.

                                            Keep at it, Dawn.  No one skewers the city scene, circa 1940's like you.

                                            You were the Tama Janowitz of the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!