Book Review- My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel Deloache Williams

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Book Title: My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress

Author: Rachel Deloache Williams

Genre: Autobiography

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I had never heard of Anna Delvey until I opened Netflix one night after seeing a small clip on Tiktok from a show called “Inventing Anna.” I spent the rest of the night watching the show, stopping only briefly to catch a cat nap due to a long day ahead that I knew would drain me. During the court room scene where it is revealed that Rachel has a book deal, I got curious and decided to look up her book when I came across it. Thankfully, my local library had the Kindle edition in stock and ready for me to begin devouring immediately which is exactly what I did.

I say all of this to tell you that I had already watched “Inventing Anna” from ALMOST start to finish when I began reading this book – a precursor for why I believe this book may have fell short as much as it did. Not because what happened to Rachel wasn’t interesting because it was- the chapters discussing Marrakesh and the events that took place after were enthralling. I devoured those pieces and I sped through those scenes and sludged my way through the rest of the book.

Don’t worry, this is a spoiler free zone around here. Perhaps you’ll pick up the book to find out what I’m referring to and I actually do recommend reading this book. The book, at the end of the day, is the story about trusting somebody a little too much. Believing in this facade that the person had put up and choosing to believe what they were telling you because everyone else had. I would take this story as the warning to be careful about who you trust.

The story was interesting- her experience was interesting. But I will be the first to say that I think it was interesting because Anna Delvey and the lie that she had surrounded herself in was interesting and not because Rachel was. I found the chapters not revolving around what happened to be boring because I didn’t find Rachel to be that interesting so I scrapped the book for every reference to Anna that she was willing to provide and was happy with what I was left with because she did serve. She knew what the reader wanted to hear about.

With that being said, I found parts of the book to be slow or long winded. Towards the end as she discussed the AFTER Anna, I found myself skimming the pages at times and stopping only briefly when the story was interesting again. But I admit that I think I would have found this story to be interesting if I didn’t know who Anna was, if I didn’t already know what happened. But at the end of the day, this was a true story and I feel like a lot of the people reading the book already knew about what was happening in the book. They had devoured it while it was happening, or like me, found the Netflix show and wanted to devour more of the story.

Overall, I’ll rank this book 3 stars. Good enough to tell you to read it but nothing that swept me away to sing it’s praises.

Evermore Ranking

1. Coney Island
2. No Body, No Crime
3. Long Story Short
4. Champagne Problems
5. Marjorie
6. Ivy
7. Cowboy Like Me
8. Happiness
9. Tis the Damn Season
10. Willow
11. Closure
12. Tolerate It
13. Evermore
14. Gold Rush
15. Dorothea

BL – Dorothy Waugh and Religion

Being able to hear about different authors during these time periods that we have been reading about has been incredibly interesting. With it becoming abundantly clear how important religion within the stories were, it was fascinating to see the real life relationships with the religion that was so important.

Reading about Dorothy Waugh, a woman that had fallen under the deception of George Fox, was interesting as we were able to see how important religion was and how it can change everything for somebody.

It made me think about my friend’s Islam in America class where they learned about a prophet named Muhammad that existed during the Civil Rights Movement. He was a Muslim that firmly believed that African Americans were superior as they had been created prior to Caucasians. In his religious theory, he believed that Caucasians were created by the devil to ruin their lives.

As I had been reading about Dorothy Waugh’s experiences, I was wondering how similar the followers of Muhammad felt as they had been disillusioned into these strong beliefs and followed this man fully believing that he was spreading the word of God. It is crazy to think that something that happened in 1647 could still happen in the 1990’s and even to this day.

While the time period definitely had a big part to play in her relationship with these experiences and being able to experience these things, it should be noted that religion has and always will be important.

During a time where scientifically, we were still struggling to understand things and did not have the technology to understand why death was happening or even what was causing illness, it’s easy to imagine that many people would turn to this fictional concept that seemed to wave away many questions to simply, “it’s the way of things.” Or “that’s how God intended it.”

And the scary one that parents could tell children to enforce that they will behave, “God will know and God will punish you.” During this time, God had a stronger ability to convince children to be good than Santa even does now.

BL – Selling Your Soul to the Devil

Dr. Faustus’ relationship with the devil, and the subsequent concept of selling your soul to him, was an interesting thing to see during such a time. While that concept is by no means considered new nowadays, considering there are countless television shows and movies about the very concept. It was interesting to see such an early rendition of something that was probably taken much more seriously at the time.

While it was clear from the beginning that Dr. Faustus valued knowledge, the idea that he would go as far as to approach a devil to pursue a career as a magician was rather interesting. The idea that he accepted a 24 year deal of pursuing this particular career in exchange for his death seemed almost dramatic. Like, this was not something that he had been dreaming about for his entire life but instead he was simply interested in exploring another career.

Honestly, his craving for knowledge is what I would chalk this decision up to. The fact that he was willing to do this just so he could perfect his career as a magician, something that he had not been doing for long said everything about Dr. Faustus’ personality. He had been approached about something that, in his eyes, required him to delve into the dark arts and was not willing to walk away regardless of the fact that at the end of the 24 years, he would die. It did not matter to him that it would only be 24 years, that he was selling his soul simply for an advancement in career. No, he was doing this for the knowledge that came along.

BL- Dr. Faustus and Aristotle

As a Creative Writing and Philosophy Double Major, I was immediately attracted to the fact that he references Aristotle in almost the first five lines of the entire play. “Yet level at the end of every art, And live and die in Aristotle’s works. Sweet Analytics, ’tis thou hast ravish’d me! Bene disserere est finis logices. Is, to dispute well, logic’s chiefest end?” It is because of this that I decided that I wanted to consider Dr. Faustus’ story when it comes to Aristotle’s view on logic.

The first step in this conversation is to lay out what Aristotle’s views on logic actually are. It should be noted that Aristotle is vehemently against the idea that to have logic is to have more knowledge, nor does he believe that the purpose of logic is to gain information. Instead, Aristotle strongly believes that the aim for knowledge is to create a coherent system that allows us to investigate, classify, and evaluate good and bad forms of reasoning.

Now that we know what logic is, according to Aristotle, then we can look at Faustus to see if he is applying logic as he should be. Instead of simply trying to learn things and gain knowledge and insight, he should be working to have logic in order to make well- informed decisions about the happenings around his life.

Not long after he lays claim that he lives and breaths the work of Aristotle, he says, ” Bid Economy farewell, and Galen come: Be a physician, Faustus; heap up gold, And be eterniz’d for some wondrous cure: Summum bonum medicinoe sanitas, The end of physic is our body’s health.” Because of his brain, people have told him that he should try to be a doctor in order to make money and become loved for his knowledge and for possibly creating a cure. While Aristotle would likely see no problem with him becoming a physician, the fact that he chooses not to would likely be admired by Aristotle. Aristotle, specifically when discussing ethics, believes that greed is a problem that should be controlled and gaining knowledge and understanding simply for the sake of becoming eternalized or known for something he had done would look unfavorable to him.

Throughout the story, he seems to explore different faucets of life, including religion. “Despair in God, and trust in Belzebub: Now, go not backward, Faustus; be resolute.” Here he seems to acknowledge that he has not always had faith in God and is trying to give the entire thing a chance. This seems to be Faustus’ attempt at following Aristotle by his words, wanting to gain knowledge in order to have a well-rounded understanding in order to make the right choices.

Works Cited

Marlowe, Christopher, and Christopher Marlowe. The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. Wilder Publications, 2012

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, iep.utm.edu/aris-eth/.

BL: Plot of Malvolio’s Madness in Twelfth Night

In the Twelfth Night, there’s an interesting theme surrounding mental health and madness. In the play, there is a conspiracy between Maria, Sir Toby Belch, and Fabian to drive Malvolio mad simply for pleasure.

After their scheme succeeds, Malvolio is sent off to live in a darkened room in order to be “properly taken care of.” Madness had such a bad connotation for such a long time that lead to people who were mentally ill to be tortured in an attempt to cure them. There was even a period of time that madness merely meant that the devil had attacked you and you were meant to die.

This sort of behavior continued into the 1900’s where mentally ill patients were sent off to mental hospitals in unclean and unsafe living conditions where experimental tests were given out in the name of finding a cure.

In an attempt to prove to everyone that he is not actually mad, Malvolio convinces Clown to ask him a series of questions that will distinguish his sanity. These questions involved asking “What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl?” and “What thinkest thou of his opinion?”

Despite Clown believing him, nothing seems to happen as Malvolio continues to be trapped in the dark house where Sir Toby Belch tries to convince Malvolio that it actually is not a dark room in order to thicken the argument that Malvolio is indeed crazy.

Something that I found to be really interesting is that they have Feste dress up as a priest in order to declare Malvolio insane. While I had not heard of a priest having this particular job, nor do I know what a priest has to do with mental illness, I thought it was interesting as it only appeared to increase the clear differences in which people treat these kind of things now.

While I wish that we had seen something more substantial happen to Maria, Sir Toby, and Fabian for this to come about, it was interesting to read the mini sub-plot of this elaborate plot. Though eventually, Sir Toby begins to feel guilty for these choices and release Malvolio after some time of torturing him.

Honestly, this entire subplot easily could have been it’s own play and I almost wish it had as we would have gotten a closer look as to what happens to Malvolio and potentially would have even seen him get the justice that he deserved.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Twelfth Night. Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1928.

BL – Giving into Desire in “The Goblin Market” and “Lanval”

While I was reading Lanval, I was often reminded of Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti as I saw connections between how they approached desire and what that would mean for the main characters.

Goblin Market follows the story of two girls who are warned of this market where Goblins would try to get you to give into your desires and wants. “Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy,” (Rossetti. Stanza 1, lines 3-4) was indicative from the very beginning that they would do anything as they continued by listing delectable upon delectable fruits with tempting descriptions.

“Evening by evening Among the brookside rushes, Laura bow’d her head to hear, Lizzie veil’d her blushes,” (Rossetti) Rossetti continues as they discuss what they originally would do when approached by the Goblins in the market. They originally describe the characters in a very naive fashion, making them appear innocent and young in a similar manner in which Lanval is described. “… her gleaming neck Like a rush-imbedded swan, Like a lily from the beck.” (Rossetti)

“For being brave and generous, For his beauty and his prowess, He was envied by all the court; Those who claimed to hold him dear,” (Lanval) Lanval is originally introduced as this knight that is almost otherworldly, an amazing knight who could do wrong just until he is forgotten by the king and sets out on his horse.

In both stories, they come to a moment in which they have to choose to give into their desires and walk away from previous expectations, such as this belief that a woman belongs in the home with Goblin Market or the sexual desires that Lanval comes across. The moment which Lanval sees the two women that he describes as “The fairest he’d seen in all his days. They were both quite richly dressed, In deep-dyed tunics, of the best Silk, fastened with tight-tied laces; And very lovely were their faces,” (Lanval) is the turning point of the story. It is then that he walks away from his horse, a symbol of his knightly role, and gives into this desire.

Meanwhile in Goblin Market, the turning point is “She clipp’d a precious golden lock,
She dropp’d a tear more rare than pearl, Then suck’d their fruit globes fair or red: Sweeter than honey from the rock, Stronger than man-rejoicing wine.” By giving into her desire for the fruit, she sacrifices her hair in order to pay for it. Golden hair was a symbol of purity at this time and hair was highly valued. This moment in which she cuts her hair and gives into this desire is when both of these stories become that of what to do.

Works Cited

Rossetti, Christina. “Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market.

France, Marie De. Lanval. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton & Company, Inc., 2000. 127-140.

BL: Fan Theory: Beowulf was set in the Elder Scrolls Universe

But the thing that most fascinated me were the clear references from Elder Scrolls. This might come from the fact that for the last 8 months of my life, I have been completely obsessed with Skyrim which has led me to read all the lore and the mini books within the series. Because of this, a part of me does kind of look to connections from Beowulf. But as I was reading the series, I found some recognizable names from the Elder Scrolls series, like Hrothgar.

This led into my mind totally making up a lore book and pretending that I was in Skyrim reading the story. The main references that I came up with were the names Beowulf, Hrothgar, and then the whole dragon situation towards the end of the story.

As those that are a fan of the Elder Scrolls series, then you do that particularly in Skyrim that there is this castle called High Hrothgar. Now High Hrothgar is this very large castle of sorts that are controlled by the Greybeards, which are those that have sworn to understand and learn the dragon language. High Hrothgar is now considered to be a monastery and we do not know a lot of information about before it became a monastery or even if it’s always been a monastery.

The theory that I have created in order to successfully connect the two series is that Beowulf is set long, long before throughout the entire Elder Scrolls series. Perhaps it’s possible that Grendel was a part of a larger species, which is possible considering that it was a witch that birthed/ created him. I thought he seemed particularly like the Falmer. Additionally, we know that Beowulf is a very common name throughout the Skyrim series and like our universe, popular and well-known names like heroes or those from their religion becomes a name that is repeated. Like Matthew, John, Luke, Adam, and even Eve from the Bible are all names that are now common in the everyday life.

So, my theory is that this story was set towards the beginning of when the dragons were first on Elder Scrolls, clearly set just before considering the beginning of the story doesn’t include any mentions of dragons. This would also make the story placed just before any known story that we have as many of them begin during the dragon age. Beowulf becomes a household name and then eventual king following the death of Hrothgar and he originally had the palace that would eventually become High Hrothgar. Following the death of Beowulf, who made sure to tell his valiant story of how he protected the land which tragically involved the death of Hrothgar shortly before the dragon invasion. After this happened, the Greybeards managed to take control as the new King didn’t want to be so high up on the mountain considering the dragon problem and hired the Greybeards in order to deal with it.

Mind you, I’m fully aware that it was likely that the Elder Scrolls creators were simply taking information from Beowulf because the universe is rather similar to each other. Elder Scrolls generally appears to visual and practically seem to be very similar to the Medieval period so while they were searching through information of that time, they potentially came across and decided to take bits and pieces to simulate a similar story. But this was the first time that I really enjoyed reading a story set in the Medieval period and it was all due to my love for a video game that I thought it was interesting. Then my mind just kind of raced to attempt to connect the two as I’m so heavily connected to fanfiction and the fan girl mind set.

Hold Me Together (Poem)

Hold me together

To make me socially acceptable.

Without you, I get disgusting looks

From both elderly and those around me.

I get disgusting comments

And boys assume that I am a piece of trash

Ready for them to take out

And that I should be happy that they would give me such attention

Simply because you’re not holding me up.

I must be easy,

Or lucky for attention,

You’re uncomfortable and unkind

But that does not matter.

Because you have become part of the norm;

You’re expensive and annoying,

And you leave marks on my skin,

But to hell if I don’t wear you.

Because something horrible might happen

And it’ll be my fault for being indecent.

I must wear you for my safety,

Ignore the pain and the marks left on my body,

Pretend the dip in my checking account doesn’t exist.

Just to keep my self safe

For you to hold me together

Like I’m just a pair of boobs

Sweet Tooth (Poem)

I wrote the words of our story. Never

Thought it would mean something to any of us,

As the words flowed it all felt so clever.

I never thought I would have to adjust

 

When I began writing that story. We

Were still together, always together.

Still remember those times by the blue sea

When this time felt as light as a feather.

 

It was all so easy like one, two, three

Turns out I was naïve as you lied to

Me. You were this mastermind, so artsy.

The craft of lying as you tried to screw

 

But I soon found out the disgusting truth

I realized you rotted out my sweet tooth.