The German translation is not good.

Is it possible to be both ambitious and balanced?

The answer is yes, of course it is; there are manifold examples of men and women who have achieved great things while maintaining balanced, rational lives.

Reading books like Flappers though, one can't be blamed for wondering. No doubt that the more outrageous lives make more exciting reading, but as seems always the case after reading these omnibus biographies, I'm left with the feeling that these women - who inarguably achieved great things in the face of extraordinary obstacles - are not the ones we should be holding up as shining examples of success. At least Flappers doesn't outright label them as heroines as one similar recently published book hailed its subjects.

But boy, does the outrageous make for delicious reading (if you can overlook the numerous and egregious copy-editing errors). These women were rebellious, emotionally starved, unstable sometimes to the point of madness, and ambitious. Their determination and stubbornness were admirable, if their lack of moral compass was not. I'm not referring here, by the way, to their collective sexual escapades, of which I can only sit back and applaud with awe. It's more the way they all believed, no matter how humble or grand their beginnings, that the rules didn't apply to them.

About the only woman I came out of this admiring was Josephine Baker. While her compass most certainly did not point north, the author seems to chalk up some of this to naivety and ignorance (although I'm pretty sure she knew bigamy was a no-go and just didn't care). Diana Cooper might have also made it to a happy old age, but Josephine showed the most ability to adapt, to learn, to grow, and to do it all without seeming to compromise her dignity.

Take all this with a grain of salt, of course; condensed biographies like these are necessarily incomplete and leave out a lot of details that might change the reader's perspective, but the writing is engaging and Mackrell manages to connect all five women's lives into a relatively cohesive narrative. The women themselves do the rest. ( )

I know it's a petty thing to point out, but there were several typos/copy editing mistakes throughout the book...that inattention to detail bothers me. A lot. Not enough to make me stop reading the book (there weren't any exclamation marks), but still irritating.

( )

The ME generation, part one. At least for women. Men have been me me me for a long time.
These women styled themselves, they did the both-ends-burning trick, and some lived to change. Social action was not high on their list in the 20's. The Great War ended thinking of anything but get mine. Then the 30's burnt out their candles (both ends). The book follows them until they fully snuffed out, some handling it better than others. ( )

women "glamorized, mythologized, and demonized" (from Flappers
synopsis)

Flappers contains extensive notes, bibliography and index.
It's a joy for the reader that appreciates precision in research.

This literary work includes the life tales of 6 women who defined the Jazz Age—Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Tamara de Lempicka...
We search primarily their formative years and encounters in the 1920's.
But, we do move on and experience the oft occuring repercussions of their living in unprecedented style.
Their experiences are definitely exceptional.....they are brash, defiant, audacious re-inventors of self....they extended beyond envisioning and claimed as a right "a life beyond marriage and motherhood"

....."a violent disruption of almost all the standards, conventions and values current in the previous epoch" (Aldous Huxley)

"Willing to run the risks of their independence as well as enjoy its pleasures, there were good reasons for them to be perceived as women of a dangerous
generation." (introduction Flappers Judith Mackrell)

4.5 ★
This is by far the most shocking and comprehensive work that I've read, emerging from beneath the "flapper" umbrella. ( )