Overview

From the acclaimed author of Stuffed: an intimate, richly illustrated memoir, written with charm and panache, that juxtaposes two fascinating lives--the iconoclastic designer Elsa Schiaparelli and the author's own mother--to explore how a girl fashions herself into a woman. Audrey Morgen Volk, an upper-middle-class New Yorker, was a great beauty and the polished hostess at her family's garment district restaurant. Elsa Schiaparelli-- Schiap --the haute couture designer whose creations shocked the world, blurred the line between fashion and art, and believed that everything, even a button, has the potential to delight. Audrey's daughter Patricia read Schiap's autobiography, Shocking Life, at a tender age, and was transformed by it. These two women--volatile, opinionated, and brilliant each in her own way--offered Patricia contrasting lessons about womanhood and personal style that allowed her to plot her own course. Moving seamlessly between the Volks' Manhattan and Florida milieux and Schiap's life in Rome and Paris (among friends such as Dali, Duchamp, and Picasso), Shocked weaves Audrey's traditional notions of domesticity with Schiaparelli's often outrageous ideas into a marvel-filled, meditation on beauty, and on being a daughter, sister, and mother, while demonstrating how a single book can change a life.

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9780307962102

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Reviews

An epic tale of love and liberation, which is to say a mother/daughter story. Patty Volk is a wonder, and this memoir as charming, quirky, and wise as her larger-than-life mother. --Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life <br><br> It's a pure joy to be in Patricia Volk's presence on the pages of her new book, Shocked . A diptych portrayal of her gorgeous and infuriating mother and the great fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, this is an irresistible tour de force that puts on display Volk's intelligence, wit and sparkling prose. --Louis Begley

Volk expresses a touch of heroine-worship for both her mother's glamorous pragmatism and Elsa Schiaparelli's functional extravagance. The women make an unlikely pair, but Volk's nostalgic voice wisely integrates the best of them both. It does so with such engaging generosity and kindness that this funny, melancholic memoir ultimately feels like an embrace. --Andrew Solomon, author of Far From the Tree <br> <br> An epic tale of love and liberation, which is to say a mother/daughter story. Patricia Volk is a wonder, and this memoir is as charming, quirky, and wise as her larger-than-life mother. --Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life <br><br> It's a pure joy to be in Patricia Volk's presence on the pages of her new book, Shocked . A diptych portrayal of her gorgeous and infuriating mother and the great fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, this is an irresistible tour de force that puts on display Volk's intelligence, wit and sparkling prose. --Louis Begley

Author Information

Patricia Volk is the author of the memoir Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family and four works of fiction. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and Playboy. She lives in New York City.

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