Don't Look Round
In spite of the intent to charm, Trefusis's collection of  observations, anecdotes, and aphorisms--hitherto published only  in England, in 1952--reveals again that deeply disturbed and  disturbing personality that appeared in Echo (1990), the  autobiographical novel of the author's romance with Vita  Sackville- West.  ``Places make me happy,'' Trefusis complained, and ``people  make me miserable''--which accounts for her annoying mannerism of  personifying countries (``France is cerebral, Italy sensuous,  Spain passionate'') and objectifying people (hair ``the color of  potato chips''). To her complaint, her husband replied, ``Come  off it!...[Stop] strutting about in front of the looking glass.''  Trefusis, the rich, restless, frivolous daughter of a royal  mistress, records the first 50 years of the 20th century as  merely a reflection in her personal mirror, with herself--her  trivialities, opinions, and prejudices--at the center: During an  interview with Mussolini, one of the most feared and powerful men  in the world, she dropped her purse and, she claims, as he  crawled about the floor picking up her lipstick, love letters,  and cigarettes, they discussed the personality of the French--by  which she means the urban upper class she identifies with.  Occasionally, Trefusis shares the scene with some of her  seemingly empty-headed friends--Emerald Cunard, Sybil Colfax--and  her favorite author, Nancy Mitford. But, above all, Trefusis  admires her mother, whose cruelty to strangers she offers as an  example of wit: to an old Jewess crying during an air raid,  Trefusis's mother said, ``Madam, this is not the Wailing Wall.''  Air raids, casualties, the deprivations of others--all  disappear behind the ``gaiety'' of war in London, a minor  inconvenience to Trefusis, cutting off her access to French  cosmetics. She is, as Quennell says, a ``mythomaniac,'' an  inventor, but a very unpleasant one, like the irrelevant,  slightly grotesque ``decorative'' line drawings scattered  throughout. --Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.