The Diana Chronicles (#15)

Including this book, I am 3 books behind in posting... while I can blame most of it on procrastination, I am happy to report that it is also because I have made a great rebound on my reading challenge... which sunk to the depths of 800+ pages off pace... though before I get too impressed with myself, my recovery of sorts comes just in time for another reading respite during the big trip... but progress nonetheless!

My latest book - The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown - I'm guessing might get an eye roll from many... the amount of trees that have been turned into the dozens (and dozens!) of Diana books prior to, and particularly since, the Princess' death in 1997 is insane.  Oh, I haven't even mentioned that this book is all about Princess Diana - but I'm guessing it was assumed.  So why the need for another book, why now, and why did I decide to read this one in particular?

Let's see... well, first off there is no need for another Diana book... but as the "blurb" on the cover says, what makes this "the best book on Diana" is thanks to having some time pass... all the books from all the butlers, bodyguards, secretaries, ex-lovers, and even Diana herself have come out... and Brown (best know here in the States as a former editor at Vanity Fair) brings all them together... weeding out and weighing in on the different versions of the truth.  Despite being a friend/acquaintance of Diana's, she paints Diana as complex personality and doesn't hesitate to accuse Diana of using her "post-marital re-write desk" when some of the Princess' remembrances of the early days of ultimately failed marriage don't jive with other sources.

So why read it?  Well, I have always wanted to read something about Diana.  As many folks were, I was intrigued with her... and she was increasingly meeting the requirements of gay-con status, down-trodden woman triumphing over adversity... and doing it in style, if not screwing it up a time or two (or three) along the way.  As hinted above, I wasn't in more of a full picture... not one point of view and/or someone capitalizing on their relationship with the Princess (which granted Brown is doing, but to a far lesser extent than others) or even the Princess herself, who, putting it nicely, was a bit unstable and deluded (and after reading this book, who could blame her!). 

As I like to do from time to time, here's a brief passage from the book that stuck out ...

Part of it, perhaps, was that she was the first great glamour icon to live and die in the age of round-the-clock multimedia.  The loss of her dazzle happened all at once and everywhere on television and radio and the Internet, in newspapers and magazines, via cell phones and e-mail, creating the first great grief-a-thon. 

Diana was one of those "remember where you were"/glued to the TV moments for me - just hanging out at Todd's house on a Saturday night.  But since Diana's death and maybe because of it, I have found myself less and less affected by the phenomenon of the celebrity death.  Perhaps, there was a smidgen of it with JFK Jr., but these days I am in constant amazement (well, not really) over the media fray and the need for instant "oh my god!" Internet reaction to celebrity deaths... whether it be such different personalities as Heath Ledger or Tim Russert or Anna Nicole. I have come to realization that even if I am a fan of the person, their passing will likely have little or even more likely absolutely no impact on my personal life.  So I agnosticallly wish them "God's speed" and move on with my day. 

But back to the book... I loved it!  This is the "be all, end all" book about Diana (btw, the book chronicles her entire life, not just the royal portion of it).  Though you really have to have an interest in Diana and the royals... or else the details will drive you nuts!  For me, it was the equivalent of 500 pages worth of Pringles potato chips... just couldn't and didn't want it to stop!   

2008 1-2-3-4-5 Reading Challenge: + 504 Pages (Total: 5,725 pages - Finished: 7/1/2008)
-566 pages behind pace for the year (+64 change in pace since last book).