Ruby got out of the car first and then she turned back and directed Jacques in helping Elias get out. Just as he stood on the sidewalk and looked up at his new house, a couple walked past them. The Webbs kept on walking without stopping. He used to be with Adele Harcourt. Ruby took Elias by the hand and led him from room to room in the magnificent house on East 78th Street that was to be their home.
I had no idea I was coming back to live in a palace like the Vanderbilts used to have, and the Rockefellers, and those kind of people. Where did you buy all this fancy French furniture? How did you put it all together with no publicity? Every room looked rich, rich, rich, a look they loved. No one knew what was going on in this house for the past 10 months except Maisie Verdurin and my friend Charlotte de Liagra, who lives in Paris and knows more about decorating than anyone.
Like I said, the baroness practically decorated the whole house. That woman has taste. Charlotte thinks we should hire the Aquacade show at the Seraglio Hotel to perform in the pool when we give the party of parties to open this house to New York.
The pool filled with gardenias. High dives by great-looking guys. Water ballet out of the Esther Williams movies with beautiful young women, and the guests can stand on that balcony up there. New York society had gone into mourning. Dinners were canceled. Carlotta Zenda, the chairperson, was distressed after seating all those tables, but understood.
Zacharias called Simon Cabot in London to arrange for her to be invited to the reception at the Butterfield Club after the funeral.
A great deal of the population of New York went into their own sort of mourning, as Adele Harcourt had done more for the city in a philanthropic way than any other person. She had given her entire fortune, which was considerable, to the city of New York over the years. Her generosity had made her famous, and her name was as well known in certain barrios and slums as it was on Park Avenue, where she lived and went forth each evening in beautiful gowns and jewels to enjoy her role as queen of society.
Beatific, really, and then she simply stopped breathing. Van Rensselaers, Vanderbilts, Van Degans all worshipped there. It was where the funeral of Hubert Altemus, the son of Lil Altemus, had taken place after his death from aids, which his mother had never acknowledged as the cause, even when his Puerto Rican lover had shown up uninvited and was offered a seat in the family pews by Dodo Van Degan. It was the church where the heiress Justine Altemus, the daughter of Lil Altemus, had been married in a disastrous and very brief union to Bernard Slatkin, the television reporter who was now enjoying great success covering the Middle East for NBC.
Justine had moved to Paris to live with a new husband, and had taken her daughter by Slatkin, Cordelia, with her. Ethan Trescher stood in the back of the church watching every entrance, waiting to spot the people who were to be given special treatment, making eye contact with the 16 ushers who were seating people.
Ethan Trescher was the master of seating. He was a gentleman of the old school. Adele Harcourt had counted on him for years to arrange her great charity events and to call Dolores DeLongpre when it became absolutely necessary to deal with an issue. It was a matter causing great dismay among those in upper-class circles, many of which whispered thanks that Adele Harcourt did not live to hear the news.
There were also various dignitaries of the city, whom Ethan would recognize, and they were to be in the 12 rows behind Laura Bush and Bunny Chatfield, who was accompanied by his duchess, Chiquita. Everyone loved Chiquita. Chiquita chatted all the way up the aisle. The right side of the aisle was reserved for family and close friends. Lil Altemus, even when she was still rich, never used limousines, which she thought were vulgar.
Instead she would use her Buick station wagon, which had been driven for years by her chauffeur, Jimmy. After leaving her Fifth Avenue apartment, she had to sell the Buick and let Jimmy go. She had become dependent on old friends for rides to the theater, the opera, and weddings and funerals. Just look at these people behind the barriers. The people loved Adele. Something must be wrong with the marriage, I suppose. Addison Kent is saving us places.
Third row, right-hand side, right behind the Wyoming nephew and his wife. I knew you would. You know Kay Kay Somerset, of course. You were so sweet to her, Addison. Taking her to the movies in the afternoon—all those nice things you did.
Do I take your arm to go up to my seat or just follow you? Excited over her plum seating assignment, Lil chose to be warm to Addison Kent, whom she normally found contemptible. Just slip it in your purse. Once seated in the third row, she nodded to the young couple from Wyoming, who returned her greeting. Your Aunt Adele is watching over us today. You can be sure of that. She told me all about your avocado ranch.
Tell me about your mother. She and I were in the same class at Farmington. We called her Ticky in those days. I read all about it, though, in the alumnae bulletin, and I saw that Ticky was there. Do please give her my love. A little Crawford goes a long way for me. Once Oscar started dressing her, he gave her a whole new look.
Lil opened the box and was overcome by the beauty of the ring. She remembered having admired it many times when Adele wore her emeralds. She indicated with her head the young relatives from Wyoming and mouthed the name Topher. Return to Book Page. People Like Us by Dominick Dunne. The way journalist Gus Bailey tells it, old money is always preferred, but occasionally new money sneaks in—even where it is most unwelcome.
After moving from Cincinnati, Elias and Ruby Renthal strike it even richer in New York, turning their millions into billions. It would be impolite for high society to refuse them now. Not to mention disadvantageous. As long as the mar The way journalist Gus Bailey tells it, old money is always preferred, but occasionally new money sneaks in—even where it is most unwelcome.
Scandal, anyone? Get A Copy. Mass Market Paperback , pages. Published November 28th by Ballantine Books first published May 28th More Details Original Title. New York State United States. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about People Like Us , please sign up. Lists with This Book.
Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of People Like Us. I recommend everything by Dominick Dunne. Read "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" and "A Season in Purgatory. He was a victim of crime when his daughter was murdered by her boyfriend.
Years of writing a column for "Vanity Fair" magazine enchanced his art, giving him a true insider's view. I have read all of his fiction and most of his nonfiction.
He died a few years ago and I wish there were more to his legacy of literature. View 2 comments. Dominick Dunne is Augustus is the story. His daughter, Dominique the Poltergeist , was choked to death for 5 minutes by her jealous, psycho boyfriend in real life and also in the story. Lefty Flint gets 3 yrs for murder and great behavior. He plays out his fantasy to shoot him in the book.
Gus is obsessed with revenge all the while dining with the uber rich New York crowd. Elias and Ruby Renthal are the "new people" billion 4. Elias and Ruby Renthal are the "new people" billionaires of NY society. The story is revolved around them and the hateful "old generation" families. The lengths they go to sully names or get invited to the best dinners with the elite.
Dunne does a great job in making the sex just enough to say, "Oh, nice! Lots of characters but once I got them sorted out the storyline pulled me in to all the rich bastards and their evil ways. View 1 comment. May 01, Joy H. I picked this book up for free somewhere. I started reading but bailed out after a few pages. I had a hard time keeping all the characters straight.
In fact there were so many characters introduced so early in the book that I gave up after the first few pages.
As my husband says, there didn't seem to be any "connectivity". I guess he meant that he didn't see where it was all going Anyway, both of us gave up in the very beginning. I don't understand how readers can keep reading when there doesn't seem to be anything to grab onto. What's their secret? Are those readers' memories so good that they are they able to keep track of all those characters or don't they let the confusion bother them?
Perhaps the book's characters weren't fleshed out enough in the beginning to remember them, in order to keep them straight. In other words, they weren't given any substance or expanded upon. They just had names. Another GR reviewer felt the same. If my memory serves me correctly, that was a good read. Jul 24, Sarah rated it it was amazing Shelves: best-of-the-genre , the-toast , classic-trash , s. There are few books I would describe as beautifully trashy, but People Like Us definitely fits the bill.
Written in the heyday of s excess, and apparently based on a number of Important Society Folk, People Like Us is the perfect mixture of salaciousness, opulence, and just enough heart to keep the reader from total disgust.
For the reader like me, who has more and more trouble keeping track of a large list of characters, do try and stick it out past the first few chapters. Dunne throws a lo There are few books I would describe as beautifully trashy, but People Like Us definitely fits the bill. Dunne throws a lot of characters at you at once, but his talent is to make them all so memorable that you'll have no trouble with them once you've gotten stuck in.
Like the best of authors, he makes even the terrible people fascinating, so that you are compelled to read what dirty deed they will engage in next.
Just a marvelous summer read, overall, even if I did have absolutely no idea who any of the characters were supposed to represent a bit before my time, I'm afraid. Jul 31, Brad VanAuken rated it really liked it Shelves: sociology-social-science. This is pure entertainment. New money tries to break into New York society.
Lots of very funny stereotypical characters interacting in entertaining ways. It revolves around the meteoric rise of a self-made billionaire and his maneuvering to become accepted by the very tight knit New York society to his rapid unraveling as his insider trading is revealed.
This is the perfect summer read. Jun 07, J. Dunn rated it really liked it. Class warfare fiction? No one else comes to mind who captures the milieu of NYC's 'social x-rays' and with such great humor. As a bonus, he does actually know the difference between, say, Sevres and Meissen.
Or, between Savonnerie and Savonarola. His insider bon mots are laughoutloud funny. There were identical twins dressed as mermaids in the swimming pool and Ori. When she was growing up, her beloved nanny was named "Dodo. Not sure about everyone else but when the book came out many people said that Justine and Bernard were suggested by Anne Ford and Chuck Scarborough. Number 10 has it right.
Anne Ford, who was the original for Justine Altemus, has had an interesting life. She and her sister Charlotte were raised as princesses to the Henry Ford II and his first wife, and had the two hugest debutante balls on their era; they were both devastated when their parents divorced, and got out of the house as quick as they could by marrying Eurotrash jerks Stavros Niarchos in Charlotte's case who married them for their money they were huge catches because they were both beautiful and extremely wealthy.
Because they both adored their father, who was very vain and wrapped up in his own life, they made very good friends with his second wife, the Italian society beauty Cristina Ford who is apparently a very nice lady , and then they were both devastated when he divorced Cristina and married his third and final wife Cathy Ford, who was really just a gold-digger.
Both Charlotte and Anne divorced their first husbands and remarried. Charlotte wanted to stay in society and mostly has, and has had a bit of a career as a designer; Anne, who was the nicer of the two girls, really just wanted to stay out of the spotlight and get a proper education. She took lots of college courses, but because she was pretty and very wealthy, she wound up attracting Chuck Scarborough, who was considered at the time the mids the best looking anchorman in NYC.
Even though he was not at all from high society and she was, they married; but it didn't last. He loved the media spotlight and she mindful of the horrible attention her father's divorces received in the press has always shunned it; he was an extrovert and she was introvert.
They both married again. When Scarborough was on his way up and worked in Boston, his colleagues used to call him "The Golden Surfer.
Yes indeed, we too use "cookies. Otherwise, you'll just have to find some other site for your pointless bitchery needs. Become a contributor - post when you want with no ads! Who''s who in Dominick Dunne''s novels There was a thread a few weeks ago asking about who is who in Dominick Dunne's romans a clef, but I can't find it on the search function.
The renthals are based on the taubmans. You're correct, R3. Lil Altemus is Brooke Astor. A more likely candidate for Lil would be Jayne Wrightsman. Dumb as post, he was always an avid social climber. The blue-blood Bostonians wouldn't have him. All rights reserved.
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