I had decidedly mixed feelings about this book. You do get a strong sense that Flanner and Murray were very dear and close friends/lovers, and over a very long period of time as well. And they did see quite a few people in their time. The negatives are that their world seemed to have been a very insular one, in some respects, replete with mass quantities of name-dropping, and the sneering tone of Flanner's letters regarding those for whom she didn't share opinions is rather off-putting. Flanner also was dead wrong on how the Cold War would turn out; she was repeatedly of the view that not only was America's government lousy (at least after 1945), but that the Russians were likely to win. Murray also makes a few curious factual slip-ups, mostly about events in 1940, which are probably the result of sloppy editing and lack of clarity. Not sure if this book can be recommended, unless you have an absolute passion for France of the post-1945 era, and even at that, you're going to get a fair dose of Italy as well. ( )