The First Fun Read Of 2019!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                       
                                         Girls, I am telling you, this is a thriller, just for us!  The glamorous Upper East Side of Manhattan, designer clothes, nocturnal parties, of the kind I have not been to in decades, as they are only for the young--"Social Creature" is the type of novel Lauren Weisberger would write, were she able to write, serious, psychological literature.  And, I am telling you, she can't.

                                          Tara Isabella Burton can, but think back, for a moment, to the 1992 Barbet Schroeder thriller, Single White Female," with Bridget Fonda, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.  The movie plays around with that idea, but amps it up to more emotional extremes, complete with social media, which did not exist before...and (spoilers here, so don't read beyond if you intend to read the book) what's more, it uses the ending I thought the original movie should have had....and it works beautifully here.

                                             "Social Creature" starts with two women; whom is the titular character becomes fused with ambivalence.  Louise Wilson is like so many of us who come to New York; she has dreams of being a writer, she works several jobs to be able to afford a crappy apartment in Sunset Park; she is what a lot of us are when we arrive here young, and, she has the same sort of aspirations we all had, at that age.

                                                Now, by chance, she meets Lavinia Williams, a rich party girl about town, who lives with her sister, Cordelia (Cordy), in a posh apartment on Lexington and the East Seventies--a prime neighborhood!!!!!!!!--and when Lavinia introduces Louise to her world of wealth and glamour, the impoverished one is instantly seduced into the world she thinks she wants.  But how far is she willing to go to keep it.

                                                 Lavinia is a true descendant of Holly Golightly, in terms of life style, only updated to today's times.  But she is not perfect.  She is a user and collector, and that includes people.  Eventually, things, as they do with Lavinia, come to a point where she must dismisss Louise from her life.  But Louise will not lose what she has, and, one night, in club PM, Louise lashes out, and, well....Lavinia vanishes from the scene.

                                                   The absence of parents is notable in these two young.  Lavinia's travel, but express concern for their daughters, while Louise's are too culturally stunted and provincial to understand their daughter's aspirations, let alone realize how dangerously willing she is to achieve them.

                                                  I was afraid the story might end there.  But the rest of the novel details the devious charades Louise devises to keep fresh the illusion that Lavinia is still alive, when she is not.  Even her parents and sister are convinced.  And when Louise finally tells the truth, she is at first disbelieved, then has to commit another murder, to keep the first one quiet.

                                                    Now, back to "Single White Female," for a moment.  In the film, Allie (Bridget Fonda) triumphs over the psycho Hedy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), killing her with an ice pick, in what, I am sure, was an ending to satisfy the audience.

                                                       But not me.  I wanted a more Hitchcockian ending.

                                                       It would go like this--six months later, Allie is walking through midtown, when she passes someone stylishly dressed, with sun glasses, who reminds her of someone. The person turns, takes off her glasses, revealing herself to be Hedy!!!!!!!!!!  She smiles knowingly at Allie, whose face freezes in horror, as she realizes Hedy is now practicing her mayhem on someone else, and Allie is powerless to help.  The camera then pulls back to an enormous shot as Hedy walks away, as she and Allie are swallowed up in the crowd.

                                                          Not literally, but using this idea, Burton ends "Social Creature" with the truly creature-like Louise morphing into someone else, vanishing into the crowded Times Square New York New Years' Eve night, leaving her previous identity non-existent.

                                                           Will she ever be caught?  Maybe.  But, who knows???????????

                                                            I read this in one greedy sitting, and I LOVED it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                             "Ev'ry little breeze" may "whisper Louise."

                                                              "Birds in ze trees, seem to twitter Louise."

                                                             Well, girls, stay away from Louise, and her type.  If you should meet up, RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!