Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a fictionalized version of the author herself, Elizabeth Hardwick. She openly refers to the fact that she is writing a book, and that some of her relatives have complained because she did not change her own name in this book, so that some family stories are brought out into the public eye. However, she has changed some details when it suits her purposes, and she admits that truth and fiction are mingled together. This, then, is a meditation on how she sees herself. Elizabeth is in her fifties, and by now she is well aware of her habitual faults. She does not want to be too hard on herself, so she tries not to be too hard on others in her memories of them. However, when her petty or selfish side makes itself known, she openly acknowledges it. Elizabeth grows up in Lexington, Kentucky, as one...