Weekend Guide: 04.23.2021
Luxury lit
I love nice things. Cars I don’t care much about. I currently drive a pickup truck. But, clothes, gold necklaces, shoes, watches, wine, Hermes scarves - wind me up baby. Luxury is surely not on trend. We’ve got people out here in stretchy pants and vans. No shots! But the beautiful thing about (capital L) Luxury is that it is impervious to trends.
Luxury is forever.
Nice things, in the material sense, are pretty easy to identify. Shrimp & white wine. Luxury. Roger Federer slipping on his Rolex after winning Wimbledon 🎾. Pure class, and capital L Luxury baby. The act of reading a book. Luxury. Yes. But Luxury literature is something else entirely. 🍤 🍷
But what exactly is Luxury lit? This question is not rhetorical. I really want to know - what makes a book feel fancy? Some words come to mind.
Ornate
Lavish
Deluxe
Expensive
Writing down words synonymous with expensive doesn’t make a book Luxury. I would write one if it were that easy. It’s the creation of a world where luxury can live, breathe, and, you know, become a character.
But like actual capital L Luxury, it can’t be forced. It has to feel and seem effortless. That’s the hard part. To write it, you sort of have to know it. See below:
I’ve encountered so few books that I would bucket into this newly created genre. I’m really thrown. I’ve been having a hard time coming up with a list. I need your help.
Maybe “I Look Divine” by Christopher Coe is the only entry into the cannon of luxury literature. Or, it could be just the beginning. You be the judge!
I Look Divine follows Nicholas, a young man who is so considered, wealthy, vain - so conscious of being seen that his life of luxury is the ultimate cause of his demise. I Look Divine is also 109 pages, so you can read it in one sitting. It’s a nice after dinner read. As Diane Johnson so brilliantly puts it on the cover of the below edition - “It’s like a novel in lacquer”. 💅🏼
Let Nicholas take you on a ride. You’ll drink cocktails in fancy hotel bars, go dancing in Rome’s hottest after hours clubs, do drugs in Mexico City, and just exist as fabulous beings.
This one sort of feels like slipping on a pair of perfectly worn Gucci Horsebit Loafers after a long day in the home office. If you enjoy a taste of the high life every now and again - I would carve out some time this weekend to breathe this one in.
Have you read any Luxury literature lately? Does it turn you on? Does it turn you off? I would really love to hear from you. As always, thank you for your continued love and support.