The Chameleon

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAY 3, 1999

Full of improbabilities, clich s, celebrity names and fancy labels, Rautbord's (Sweet Revenge; Girl's in High Places) modern-day Cinderella story entertains despite the plot machinations and compulsive name-dropping. Or name-changing: the heroine starts off as Claire Organ and swiftly accumulates surnames and the concomitant husbands, new identities and social positions. For Claire Organ Harrison Duccio Lefkowitz Grant, besides being gorgeous, is gifted with a remarkable ability to reinvent herself time and time again, ostensibly as a matter of survival and to protect her children. But Claire's ascent into fabulousness was foreshadowed early in life. Born to an abandoned shopgirl in Chicago's Marshall Fields Department Store on December 23, 1923, Claire is raised by a triumvirate of sales ladies for the upscale store. Between the calligraphy and cooking classes, exposure to antiques and quality merchandise, and her "auntie's" guidance, Claire learns more than girls enrolled at the snootiest schools. Her chameleon-like ability to adapt colludes with her ambition as she becomes, successively, a WASP's wife, a Washington aide during WWII, an international hostess, a Hollywood player, a member of Congress and, ultimately, an ambassador. (The parallels to Pamela Harriman's life are titillating There's plenty of melodrama, romance and heartache in Claire's tale. While readers will enjoy her adventures and admire her spunk, however, they may also wonder why this capable, clever and charming heroine never manages to outgrow her longing for a man to rescue her, and to provide her with social and financial opportunities, an identity and a future.