o write the story of her tabloid affair. She had been having an affair with Guy VanVleet when his wife found them in bed and shot him. Isabel had saved every news story published and transformed her room into a shrine to herself. “Newspaper clippings floated magically on its curved mauve-woolen walls…and her bed, covered it sheared sheepskin the color of eggplant…was littered with celebrity biographies” (22). She wanted the public to know her story, or at least the story she was choosing to tell. The affair started out when Isabel became Guy’s personal shopping consultant and evolved into much more. He showered her with gifts and truly was in love with her, while she was still unsure of how much she loved him. Isabel had never had a problem in the men department though. There was always some guy ready to open a door for her or buy her a drink. In her first true act of kindness, Isabel consoles Harriet on her men problems offering the advice, “I give lessons” (??). Isabel also works to immediately pull Harriet into her world of lavish items and hired help. She takes her shopping to find her clothes that don’t “look apologetic” (171) in New York and to a salon to get a new haircut. Isabel is also very open about her body and through this openness encourages Harriet to be more open about hers. “There weren’t even bubbles in the bath to obscure her private parts from me, her acquaintance of less than twenty-four hours. There was no getting around her breasts. … Ordinarily I’d feel sorry for a woman with water-balloon breasts, knowing the burdens they imposed, but I could see that Isabel prized them and regarded them as my first research project, as if seeing them would help me write between the lines” (36). Just as Isabel helped Harriet change, Harriet also helped Isabel. She became much more caring after writing the book and living wi...
