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Must You
Go?
by Antonia Fraser
Her life with Harold
Pinter
There is something disreputable about reading someone else's
diary. On this occasion Lady Antonia won't mind: indeed, she will mind if we
don't.
'Must You Go?', is not only a diary, it is a diary about a
diary, and as such looses spontaneity. Mrs Pinter has taken her contemporaneous
notes of life with husband Harold, and edited them into what she hopes will be saleable
copy.
I have read most of Antonia Fraser's nonfiction work, and enjoyed
it. After reading MYG, I was left with the feeling that for her, writing was
purely business. Oh Dear: another illusion shattered.
Morally, the Lady Antonia does not come out of the work very
well despite her asseverations of faith. She seems proud of her unfaithfulness to
her husband Sir Hugh Fraser, and adultery with Harold. She also advertises her
overt sexuality. A matter for her
certainly; but does she need to tell us about it?
If you like diaries, you will probably like this one.
Whether you would like it $30 worth, is a harder to decide. It starts with
adultery in 1975, and ends with tragic death in 2008. In 328 pages, the Champaign Socialists spend
and party through their 33 years together.
Anyone who is anybody - or was, will be found in these pages.
Lady Antonia has the kind of face that looks as if she is
going to burst into tears at any moment - and in this book she does.
The Longford family are a literary industry which is being
perpetuated by the Fraser brood. I regret that 'Must You Go?' will not be one
of their (many), stellar achievements.
286 words
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