This fragmentary memoir, supplemented by love letters from Theodore
Dreiser, offers little of interest about either the author, her
famous lover, or their relationship. In 1930, 17-year-old Yvette
Szekely was seduced by "groping Teddy," then in his late 50s. Their
affair, which continued until Dreiser's death in 1945, was only one
of several the novelist had while living with Helen Richardson
(Yvette learned of the others in biographers' accounts of Dreiser's
life). If the relationship developed, as Eastman claims, "into a
spiritual and emotional bond," this comes off the page less
powerfully than do the furtive meetings in rented digs, the post
office boxes leased to conceal correspondence exchanged, and the
routine banter of epistles that - as love letters often do - sound
banal to all but their intended recipient. Perhaps because Yvette
was infatuated with Dreiser and his celebrity, her intimate
perspective does not translate, even retrospectively, into incisive
observation. The one person who does emerge from the memoir as
genuinely intriguing is Margaret Szekely, who married Yvette's
father and raised the girl as her own daughter (though the portrait
is only partial and filtered through Yvette's residual anger).
Emotionally volatile, creative, and undoubtedly difficult to live
with even when she wasn't threatening suicide, Margaret was a
journalist, inventor, and lingerie designer. Moreover, a passing
reference in one of Dreiser's letters to Yvette's own suicide
threat and the later revelation of Yvette's affair with Margaret's
estranged husband, Ken Clark, leads to suspicions that the dark
relationship between stepmother and stepdaughter - if it had been
more fully explored - holds more potential interest than these
rather dull reminiscences of the affair with Dreiser. (Szekely
later married Max Eastman.) Essentially for those whose interests
are academic or voyeuristic or both. (Kirkus Reviews)
A candid and intimate chapter in the life of a modern woman, Yvette
Eastman's vivid narrative also contributes richly to the life story
of Theodore Dreiser. Dearest Wilding: A Memoir records the journey
that took Yvette Szekely from an upper-middle-class scholar's home
in Budapest to the intellectual and artistic centers of urban
America in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1929 sixteen-year-old Yvette
Szekely met Dreiser, who was fifty-eight at the time, and within a
year he became her lover. Dreiser remained central to her life-as
lover, father figure, and mentor-until his death in 1945. Her
portrait of Dreiser, who is by no means idealized, is of a complex
man-often troubled, suspicious, and jealous, but also caring and
supportive. The book is much more than an account of a sixteen-year
relationship, however. It describes Eastman's attempt to understand
her bond with Dreiser, forcing her back to her childhood, to
memories of her distinguished but distant father who remained in
Hungary, and to the early experiences that made the aging Dreiser
so important to her life. In an afterword, the author thoughtfully
reflects on the patterns of love and loss that form part of her
past. Dearest Wilding is a valuable primary source in literary
history and among the last documents from this era. One of the most
important figures in the memoir is Max Eastman, whose early
relationship with Yvette Szekely resulted in marriage years later.
As perhaps the last reminiscence of Dreiser and his circle that
will ever appear, Dearest Wilding: A Memoir promises rewarding
reading.
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