Review: Let's Call Her Barbie

Let's Call Her Barbie by Renée Rosen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Received this book from Book Browse to discuss. While the beginning of the book was interesting, dealing as it did with the original doll, a German toy for grown men, and its inspiration for Ruth, the wife of the owner of Matel, it soon devolved into a soap opera of petty jealousy, idle gossip and commercial wheeling and dealing that resulted in litigation.

Once the problems of getting the doll manufactured in a small factory in Japan and the descriptions of how vogue-like costumes were designed, I'm afraid I lost interest. Hence the poor rating overall. While realizing the book is called a nover, the author makes every effort to convince the reader that everything in it is actually quite true. There is, in the back of the book, an admission that one of the main characters is in actuality fictional despite the fact she is presented as a classmate and eventual friend of Bob Mackie's. Tedious and not sure why I finished it, other than I felt a responsibility to Book Browse

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