Princess Daisy
by Judith Krantz
My dear friend gave me her beloved copy of Princess Daisy, which I instantly fell in love with after seeing the cover. It turns out, she saw it in a used bookstore and only bought it because she fell in love with the cover, too! So, if you like the beautiful blonde on the cover, that’s a good start.
Judith Krantz’s famous soapy drama is pretty intense, so be prepared when you read it that one of the main themes in the book is incest and sexual assault. Krantz’s writing is so confident and sympathetic, she doesn’t write any of the upsetting scenes in an offensive tone. Instead, she writes it realistically, with everyone’s conflicting feelings described without judgement. Spanning generations of broken people meeting other broken people and breeding broken people, the title is perhaps irony at its finest. “Princess Daisy” suggests delicacy and fluff, but nothing in the book is silly or dainty as a flower. The characters are so fleshed out, you feel as if they really exist and you’ve met them by reading about them. The dramatic ups and downs are interesting and complex, in varied settings from European ski lodges to New York’s advertising world. Each scene is vivid and extremely well-written, but they’re not for the faint of heart. This book is riddled with explicit sex scenes and feelings that are difficult to process. If you think you’re up for it, it’s a modern classic that’ll stick with you for years afterwards.
Judith Krantz’s famous soapy drama is pretty intense, so be prepared when you read it that one of the main themes in the book is incest and sexual assault. Krantz’s writing is so confident and sympathetic, she doesn’t write any of the upsetting scenes in an offensive tone. Instead, she writes it realistically, with everyone’s conflicting feelings described without judgement. Spanning generations of broken people meeting other broken people and breeding broken people, the title is perhaps irony at its finest. “Princess Daisy” suggests delicacy and fluff, but nothing in the book is silly or dainty as a flower. The characters are so fleshed out, you feel as if they really exist and you’ve met them by reading about them. The dramatic ups and downs are interesting and complex, in varied settings from European ski lodges to New York’s advertising world. Each scene is vivid and extremely well-written, but they’re not for the faint of heart. This book is riddled with explicit sex scenes and feelings that are difficult to process. If you think you’re up for it, it’s a modern classic that’ll stick with you for years afterwards.