Circus in the Wishing Well

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Map of Oak Point, the Long Island residence of Countess Mona von Bismarck, once the most beautiful, best-dressed, and richest woman in the world. This is the setting for the first half of CIRCUS IN A WISHING WELL, a novel about coming of age in 1969. 

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Raymundo de Larrain, “Jimi Hendrix in Kaleidoscope” 1969.

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Jimi Hendrix, LIFE magazine, October 3, 1969. Photograph by Raymundo de Larrain. CIRCUS IN THE WISHING WELL is the story of two cousins, Taffy and Candy, best friends and rivals, coming of age in that year on Long Island. “It’s 1969, do you know where your children are?”

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BEST BOY, by Eli Gottlieb. Full disclosure: I have been a friend of the author since college, and I learned more about literature and philosophy from him than from the professors. So, no hyperbolic boilerplate; the excellent reviews of this novel speak for themselves. Eli writes with sensitivity, insight and verve, and I fully expect “Best Boy” to be his “breakout” novel. His rendition of an adult man with autism, and the world he inhabits, is a tour de force of the imagination. His story telling skills never fail him, and his ability to deliver a point from several perspectives is impressive. I recommend this novel to anyone interested in the world of ideas, and to every reader who ponders what it means to be human. The ongoing interest in the spectrum of autism, and its definition over the years, provide the backdrop for understanding how society treats “the other;” safe to say that, until recently, most of what we thought we knew about autism was wrong. Eli Gottlieb has made an important contribution to fostering that understanding, and advocating for the right of autistic people to “be human.” Bravo, amigo!

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Online shopping from a great selection at Books Store.

Eli’s penetrating intelligence has been a boon to my own thinking since our college days. His books speak for themselves; no need to hype his thoughtful oeuvre, each of which which have a rhythm and word choice pitch perfect for his involved plots. 

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Jean Moral - Mode, Balenciaga, Paris, 1940.

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“It is so perfect, only Balenciaga could have made it” ~Givenchy

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Balenciaga, 1965

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Balenciaga’s atelier was as quiet as a cathedral, and it is not surprising that, as the “mod” sixties got more garish, he became more cloistered in the classic. In just three years, it was all over. Countess Mona Bismarck was never the same after he closed his atelier, as detailed in the first novel about her, “CIRCUS IN THE WISHING WELL.”

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Thanks to “Miss L. G. E.” for this clipping ~ sounds like a great show.

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The first issue of New York magazine (April 8, 1968). Designed by the great Milton Glaser. Better-looking than anything currently on newsstands, I’d say.

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I’ve got this issue somewhere in the wilds of my apartment … need to find!!!

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The city back in Mona and Jimi's day.

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The year is 1969, and the lyrics and poetry of Jimi Hendrix are the "red thread" which runs through CIRCUS IN THE WISHING WELL ~ when protagonist Evan Charles gets a chance to hang out with Jimi, it is the shock of his life.

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Flamenco‑inspired attire by Balenciaga; photo by Gion Mili. 

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Balenciaga in Vogue

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG10275681/The-mysterious-Cristobal-Balenciaga.html 

CIRCUS IN THE WISHING WELL is the first novel to explore the world of Balenciaga from the inside~

[psychsquirrel]

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NOW YOU SEE HIM, by Eli Gottlieb. “Recommended”

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The Face Thief by Eli Gottlieb

Eli Gottlieb’s previous novel, Now You See Him, was acclaimed by reviewers as “irresistible … moving” (New York Times Book Review), “a triumph…of literary suspense” (Los Angeles Times), and “gorgeous” (USA Today). With The Face Thief, he returns with a driving, compulsively readable novel that probes the wellsprings of human greed and loyalty beset by temptation.

Gottlieb introduces the mystery of the charismatic Margot, a promising journalist who morphs—with stunning panache—from a high-achieving affluent twentysomething into a grifter making her living preying on the weaknesses of men. Having studied the ancient Chinese art of face reading, she becomes an expert at reading people and is also able to rearrange her look and persona with uncanny skill to fit any social situation. She is an avenging angel, shattering marriages and draining bank accounts.

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Circus in the Wishing Well

Candy and Taffy are cousins, best friends and rivals, coming-of-age on Long Island in 1969. Roberta rounds out their clique. Evan Charles, their clueless classmate, is ready for a girlfriend, and thinks they are out-of-sight, but his father is drowning in an inch of liquid. Now he has to wing it. Taffy is there for him, but is it love?  

Next door, Countess Mona Bismarck, a horse trainer’s daughter from Kentucky, is in a fierce legal battle with Evan’s refined mother over the development of Mona’s sixty-acre estate, Oak Point. The village’s future is at stake. Exploring the semi-abandoned property is Evan’s reckless pastime. When a night of romance there ends in gunfire, his luck takes an unexpected turn.

Paris, 1983. Mona, dying, tells all to Evan, a fledgling writer. From genteel rural poverty to a title in Europe, her many loves, and patronage of Balenciaga. The Countess gives Evan King Zog’s psychic black opal, which she used to become the richest woman in the world. Evan has a more romantic goal. When the girls, now women, re-enter Evan’s life in New York’s publishing world, Mona’s black opal proves its worth.

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Countess Mona von Bismarck: "The 'Girl Next Door' was the most beautiful, best-dressed, and richest woman in the world." Photo by Cecil Beaton, her unofficial court photographer and portraitist.