Campy humor of ’60s deb ‘Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante’ lacks bite
Author Monica Nolan
Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante by Monica Nolan
(Kensington Books 2013) $15; 288 pp.
Job-bobbing isn’t what Maxie wanted to do as a career, but there she is, feeling like an ill-employed rubber ball, ready to bounce to the next workplace. In the new book Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante by Monica Nolan, Maxie just needs to try her hand at a bunch of different things.
Debutante Maxie Mainwaring hated when Mumsy made her go to those society-ladies luncheons. Those events were stuffy and begged for excitement, so Maxie obliged by making out with Elaine Ellman in the bathroom at the Bay City Women’s Club. Big mistake: Mumsy was so scandalized that she made good on a perennial threat and cut Maxie’s allowance off. It was 1964 — what kind of a job could a deb do?
Quickly, Maxie decided that it was time to move in with her girlfriend, Pamela. Pam had been hinting about that for awhile, even though she often complained about Maxie’s lack of stick-to-it-iveness and her wandering eye.
Unfortunately, those subjects instantly came up, and the on-again-off-again girls were off for good.
On her way back home to the Magdalena Arms, Maxie stopped at Francine’s Bar to nurse her wounds and meet her friends for a drink. Lovely Lois, delightful Dolly, Janet the lawyer, and practical Phyllis all promised to help Maxie find a job. Career Counselor Doris Watkins even wanted to do a job assessment study with her.
And so Maxie tried employment at a magazine, but learned that there was no pay. She had a brief stint as a recreational aide before getting fired for snooping. She worked for a magazine publisher who loved her snooping but hated her tardiness.
But Maxie was tardy for good reason: she’d met a beautiful butch, Lon, who seemed to be involved in organized crime and Maxie was tailing her, intrigued. Then Maxie learned that her mother was also mixed up in the mob. Could that be why Francine’s was raided by the police? Was Lon’s life in danger? Was somebody following Maxie, too?
How do I describe thee, Maxie Mainwaring? Let me count the ways. It’s rompish, first of all — humorous, but not hilarious; contrived, but not off-puttingly so. And it’s silly — very definitely silly, but not in a bad way.
I actually liked this book for its frivolity. I’m normally not a big fan of an over-filled cast of characters, yet here it seemed to work. What started out as fun, though, didn’t stay that way, as Nolan’s weirdly excessive use of identifiers instead of monikers grows stale. Repeatedly referring to someone by job description or former job description rather than by name became tiresome and often quite confusing.
Still, this fluffy whodunit, this marshmallow mystery, is entertaining enough if you can ignore that abrasion. It’s surely something that’s perfectly made for summertime reading.
And if that’s what you want, then Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante is what you should have.
— Terri Schlichenmeyer
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 13, 2013.