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Borrowed Finery: A Memoir

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'Borrowed Finery: A Memoir' by Paula Fox is a poignant account of the author's difficult childhood, where she faced neglect and abandonment from her parents. Despite the hardships, Paula Fox grew up to become a successful writer, penning numerous children's books and novels. The memoir delves into the author's life experiences, offering insights into the characters and themes in her literary works. Paula Fox's writing style, characterized by descriptive and minimalist prose, effectively captures the emotions of her childhood self and the wisdom of her adult perspective.

The Reverend Elwood Amos Corning, the Congregational minister who took care of me in my infancy and earliest years and whom I called Uncle Elwood, always saw to it that I didn’t look down and out. Twi...

From The Publisher:

Born in the 1920s to nomadic, bohemian parents, Paula Fox is left at birth in a Manhattan orphanage, then cared for by a poor yet cultivated minister in upstate New York. Her parents, however, soon resurface. Her handsome father is a hard-drinking screenwriter who is, for young Paula, "part ally, part betrayer." Her mother is given to icy bursts of temper that punctuate a deep indifference. Never sharing more than a few moments with his daughter, Fox's father allows her to be shuttled from New York City, where she lives with her passive Spanish grandmother, to Cuba, where she roams freely on a relative's sugarcane plantation, to California, where she finds herself cast upon Hollywood's seedy margins. The thread binding these wanderings is the "borrowed finery" of the title of this astonishing memoir of one writer's unusual beginnings, which was instantly recognized as a modern classic.

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About the Author:

Paula Fox (1923-2017) is the author of the memoirs The Coldest Winter and Borrowed Finery, six novels, and a number of children's and young adult books, including the Newberry Award-winning children's book, The Slave Dancer. She lived in Brooklyn, New York.

 
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