SOURCE: “Gray is Back in Fashion,” Saturday Review, Vol. 11, No. 6, December, 1985, pp. 52–56.

In the following interview, Gray discusses the stylistic and thematic aspects of her novel October Blood.

Francine du Plessix Gray's third novel, October Blood, takes place mainly in the ultra-urban, high-powered New York of High Fashion. Gray knows the territory well. Her mother, as Tatiana of Saks, was a designer of hats; her stepfather, Alexander Liberman, became editorial director of Condé Nast. Today Francine Gray lives a quiet life in rural Connecticut with her husband, painter Cleve Gray.

October Blood takes place, Gray says, “at the heart of a sexual-industrial complex which advised hundreds of thousands of women how to comb their hair, keep their men, feed their guests, what paintings to hang on the walls, what poets to name-drop at lunch and what novels, plays and beaches to discuss at dinners.”

Gray feels that although...