Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman ~ Sam Wasson

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction

Publisher: Harper

256 pages

ISBN: 9780061774157

Source: Publisher via TLC Book Tours

For two reasons, I thought that this might be a little bit far fetched as a book I’d enjoy. The first being that I’m not really a Hepburn fan. You know, that bit about Tiffany’s and the height of femeninity and all. The other is that, well, quite frankly, it is an account of women’s studies but is written by, ahem,  a dude.

Now, I can safely report that I was happily mistaken on both accounts. Well, on the second, it is in fact written by a “dude” but that turned out not to be a turn off.

I tend to give men in general a lot more credit than many people, even men themselves, when it comes to understanding women. For that very reason, I shouldn’t really be surprised at all that Wasson so expertly manages to capture the transformation of feminine and feminist culture surrounding the early moving picture industry.

Moving expertly through one of Hollywood’s most dramatic periods of transformation, Sam Wasson, weaves a story that is fun and pure but also one that is full of and true to life.

I haven’t done that much research when it comes to the silver screen, (that’s more my husband’s department) so this is a fun intro to many of the names I’ve only ever heard in passing. Of course, I do know the name Capote and he is a prominent player, which, which is cool to see.

The time period is also a relatively unexplored one for me, though my parents were born in it and it is when my, oh so beautiful herself, grandmother was born. This is an age of glamour and glitz but also of chaste solitude of the american woman. Again, Wasson really does his gender a serious service in tapping into the mind and emotion of the developing female culture of the time,

This is a short book but a seriously fun read. It’s a little bit of history, a little bit of culture and a whole lot of entertainment.

Please do drop by the other TLC stops on this tour for other thoughts:

Sam’s Tour Dates
Tuesday, August 30th: Wandering Thoughts of a Scientific Housewife
Thursday, September 1st: Reviews from the Heart
Tuesday, September 6th: Reading Lark
Wednesday, September 7th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Thursday, September 8th: Books Like Breathing
Monday, September 12th: Elle Lit.
Tuesday, September 13th: Amused By Books
Wednesday, September 14th: Iwriteinbooks’s blog
Thursday, September 15th: Alison’s Book Marks
Monday, September 19th: A Library of My Own
Tuesday, September 20th: The Road to Here
Wednesday, September 21st: Sophisticated Dorkiness
Friday, September 23rd: My Bookshelf