the heiress’ hangover cure
Caroline Blackwood's Great Granny Webster, from 1977, is 5 x 0.3 x 8 inches & 128 pages.
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So I happen to maintain an impeccable approach to reading fiction; I simply forget all personal history of the author for the duration of the book. So there I was, skipping along this strange, slim, sneaky funny 1977 Caroline Blackwood novel while completely ignoring my knowledge that Lady Caroline Blackwood was the heiress to the Guinness dynasty when I read this passage about the narrator’s Aunt Lavinia’s hangover cure:
Astonished! Anyway, I’d love to call a person “such a gruesome old water-drinker,” and I have someone in mind!
Great Granny Webster comes in four parts & examines multiple generations of an eccentric dynastic family, their wealth, and their highly varied worldviews. Each chapter is a character profile of one relative. My favorite, naturally, is the narrator’s visit with Aunt Lavinia. Lavinia lives in the height of glamour, bolstered by rich men who adore her, unbothered by an annoying dog. She’s someone, you know, who’s full of life, who’s the life of the party, who’s joie de vivre itself.
When we meet her, she’s also just tried to end it all. She’s impetuous, attention-seeking, and reckless— the most classic foil to the narrator’s titular Great Granny Webster. The way the two of them live (irresistibly; parsimoniously), the way they want to die (immediately; never) are completely opposed. Aunt Lavinia cares only about the superfluous, lavish texture of life; Great Granny Webster only cares for good posture and staying alive. GGW is predictable, bloodless, bone dry, cold, joyless. Her only reason to live is that she’s too humorless to die. She’s clinging for the reason of clinging.
Great Granny Webster, by the way, is the gruesome old water-drinker and she’d never invent a hangover cure because she’d never even know how to get a hangover in the first place.
Plus, some gorgeous news: McNally Editions will release Caroline Blackwood’s 1976 novel The Stepdaughter in August of this year, with an introduction by Heidi Julavits.
Great Granny Webster was the most recent Purse Book Gals-On-The-Go Official Book Club Book. Here’s what a few Gals on the Go thought:
“I just kept thinking about this note in the Tina Brown’s Princess Diana book that boring stodgy fogies were called ‘heavy furniture’ by the young set—because there’s a much insulted, important piece of heavy furniture of Great Granny Webster’s! I think it was probably a beautiful antique, but the lighting of the room was too ominous to see it.” — Allie E.
“Well of course I didn’t like the granny, but at least you can trust her, and we must give her credit that she has good posture.” — Emily C., who carried this book in cute green beaded bag!
“Caroline Blackwood was married to Lucian Freud — and is the star of his Girl in Bed painting. Big eyes, champagne hair, looks amazingly disinterested.” — H.C.
“A book about death that’s so full of life!” — Mac A.
If you’d like to join the club, email pursebookletter@gmail.com.