Edward Everett Tanner (1921–1976), known by the pseudonym Patrick Dennis, was an American author. The book under review remained on bestseller lists for two years, surpassing two million copies sold.
On the eve of the 1929 crash, young Patrick becomes an orphan at the age of ten. Mame, his only aunt, takes him in. She was a woman obsessed with being modern, which at that time also meant being an admirer of Freud (no traumas, no repression), irreligious, rebellious, frivolous... She was a beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated woman who moved among artists and great fortunes.
The book, which has an ironic and comedic tone (hilarious for some), follows the evolution of Patrick’s life (school, university, courtship, war, professional career, marriage). Each of these stages is marked by his aunt’s existential situation, as she devotes herself to her passions in a theatrical and obsessive way, with a turbulent love life.