Never Say Good-bye

by Gloria Vanderbilt

The intricately interwoven lives of four women--Jessica, Jane, Garnet, and Billie Mae--and their dreams, romances, tragedies, and triumphs are chronicled over the course of one year in a series of vignettes, reminiscences, and characters' revelations

195 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1989

About the author

Gloria Laura Vanderbilt was an American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite. She was a member of the Vanderbilt family of New York and the mother of CNN television anchor Anderson Cooper. Wikipedia

Gloria Laura Vanderbilt was the author of four memoirs and two novels. She contributed to various publications, including The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Elle, and has received two honorary Doctorates of Fine Arts. She lived in New York City.

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sale find intrigued me. I've read about Gloria Vanderbilt in her son Anderson Cooper's book and also, the one jointly written by the two. So, I thought it would be interesting to read one of her novels. She was a multi-talented woman - designer, artist, author, socialite. All of these facets show up in this novel that follows four woman whose lives are intricately involved, mostly through the men in their lives. Sometimes with celebrity authors, one wonders how biographical their novels are. This one certainly must be in terms of wealth, position and life style. The book is written in little snatches of thought and can be hard to follow as it moves from one person to the next. Mothers of three of the woman play an important role that is usually not mentioned in reviews of the book. One woman's mother becomes obsessed with David C. Stephenson who was a member and leader of the KKK. He was largely responsible for the KKK's presence and revival in Indiana and the Midwest. Only after being accused of murder, does truth come out. People are quick to disavow him and all he stood for. Although covering only a few pages, I found this part startling. Another woman's mother disappeared in 1933 because her Communist/Russian friend thought she might give away his secrets. He had her kidnapped and sent to a sanitarium in the Soviet Union. The daughter eventually is reunited with her 50 years later. Again, startling. I had to keep reminding myself that the book was published in 1988.

[Vanessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt drained by the end of this book. Rather disjointed and abrupt character point of view switching. No discernable plot and then part of it came together, yet I'm still wondering about the storyline that most intrigued me and was never resolved.
There were elements of stories within stories that could have been books within themselves, but I kept saying out loud, "What?"
There was a true moment felt in the book written by the author which did make me cry from the point of view of a mother losing a child. I could feel her pain and not the character's pain.
I cannot recommend this book at all.

[Joanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why did I continue on and read the whole book? Um, not sure. Maybe I thought there would be a message or surprised ending; if there was I missed it! From the book jacket the female characters appeared to be interconnected in their relationships with Mac and Grafton, but the story fell flat for me. Ms. Vanderbilt should keep to designing clothes, not writing books.